TrendForce casts doubt on Taiwanese firms avoiding US anti-dumping duties

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 13:49 (PV-Tech)

Taiwan-based market research firm, TrendForce said that solar cell manufacturers in Taiwan primarily met the US International Trade Commission (ITC) criteria as used in the original case with Chinese cell and module manufacturers. Read more

Distributor opens commercial market to smaller installers with new finance deal

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 11:24 (Solarpowerportal)

Zenex Solar has launched a new finance arrangement for installers that it claims will help open up the elusive commercial-scale market. Read more

SunEdison commissions 19 MW solar PV plant at airport in Malaysia

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 22:36 (Solarserver)

SunEdison Inc. (St. Peters, Missouri, U.S.) has built and commissioned a 19 MW-DC solar photovoltaic (PV) project for Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. The project includes ground-mount, parking canopy and rooftop components, and is the largest PV plant in the nation. Read more

New Solar Job Statistics Released, But Other Renewables Are Growing, Too

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 21:58 (Renewable Energy World)

Washngton, D.C. non-profit The Solar Foundation just released its National Solar Jobs Census 2013, whichis the fourth annual update of current employment and projected growth in the United States solar industry. Their data for Census 2013 is derived from a statistically valid sampling and comprehensive survey of 15,437 employers throughout the nation. Read more

BofA Merrill teams with SunPower on first major financing of US residential solar

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 17:10 (PV-Tech)

SunPower has secured a US$220 million loan from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAMerrill) to support PVEPs next wave of residential solar lease projects in the US. Read more

The U.S. solar industry added 24,000 additional jobs in 2013

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 15:21 (Solarserver)

The Solar Foundation (Washington D.C.) has released a new study which finds that the U.S. solar industry employed 143,000 Americans in 2013, an increase of 24,000 over the previous year. This is a 20% increase, much faster than the nation's average employment growth rate of 1.9%. Read more

Conergy acquires Wirsol Solar UK, 100 MW of UK solar PV projects

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 14:34 (Solarserver)

Conergy AG (Hamburg, Germany) has acquired Wirsol's (Waghaeusel, Germany) UK subsidiary for an undisclosed sum, including 100 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects and all employees. The company notes that 50 MW of the portfolio is ready to be built, with the first projects already under construction. Read more

Yingli Green and Trina Solar took 15% of global market share in Q4 2013

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 13:31 (PV-Tech)

Yingli Green and Trina Solar extended their share of the global PV module market to 15% in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the latest report from analysts NPD Solarbuzz. Read more

Renesola agrees 57MW UK module order with Isolux Corsan

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 13:23 (Solarpowerportal)

Global PV manufacturer, Renesola has formed an agreement with construction, energy and industrial services firm Isolux Corsan to supply 57MW of modules for three UK solar projects. Read more

American Solar Energy Society to partner with Intersolar North America

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 13:10 (Solarserver)

Intersolar North America, the most attended industry exhibition and conference in North America for solar professionals, on January 22th, 2014 announced that partner American Solar Energy Society (ASES), the nation’s leading association of solar professionals and advocates, will hold their annual conference in conjunction with the seventh annual Intersolar North America in San Francisco this July. Read more

Tamesol predicts 50% of its income to come from UK solar following MCS certification

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 13:08 (Solarpowerportal)

Spanish solar manufacturer Tamesol has revealed that it has become Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) certified. Read more

Order Focus: Canadian Solar powers four Belectric PV plants in California

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 12:15 (PV-Tech)

Canadian Solar has been selected to power four photovoltaic (PV) plants by Belectric with a total capacity of 7.8MW in San Bernardino County, California. Read more

Conergy acquires Wirsol Solar UK, targets UK expansion

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 12:05 (PV-Tech)

Conergy has announced that it has acquired Wirsol Solar UK for an undisclosed sum. Read more

Jobs figures reveal contrasting fortunes of solar in Germany and the US

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 11:57 (PV-Tech)

New figures highlight the contrasting fortunes of the solar energy sector in Germany and the US. Read more

Conergy acquires Wirsol Solar UK, targets UK expansion

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 11:45 (Solarpowerportal)

Germany-based Conergy has announced that it has acquired Wirsol Solar UK for an undisclosed sum. Read more

PHOTON yield measurement 2013: Solar PV modules are noticeably improving

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 9:24 (Solarserver)

Over the past 8 years, PHOTON Laboratory has been monitoring an increasingly large number of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules on a shade-free area of land near Aachen, Germany. Now, the evaluation data for the 2013 measurements are available. The most important finding is that PV module producers were able to noticeably increase the yield of their modules in 2013. Read more

Fraunhofer ISE: Solar PV to be cheaper than fossil fuel generation by 2030

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 8:54 (Solarserver)

Fraunhofer ISE (Freiburg, Germany) has released a new report which finds that the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) from renewable energy sources including solar photovoltaics (PV) is competitive with some fossil fuel generation, and will be cheaper than most forms of fossil fuel generation by 2030. The research institute estimates the LCOE for German solar photovoltaic (PV) plants in the range of EUR 0.08–0.14 (USD 0.11–0.19) per kWh in 2013 and 2014. Using its learning curve analysis, Fraunhofer ISE estimates that these costs will fall to EUR 0.06–0.09 (USD 0.08–0.12) by 2030. Read more

India names bidders in NSM phase 2, batch 1 solar PV auction

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 8:48 (Solarserver)

Solar Energy Corporation of India has published a full list of the bidders in the auction for phase 2, batch 1 of India's National Solar Mission (NSM). A total of 68 companies participated, placing 122 bids totaling 2.17 GW for 750 MW of available capacity. Companies placed 86 bids for projects in the “open” category, and 36 bids for projects under the domestic content requirement (DCR). Both were over-subscribed, with 700 MW of bids for 375 MW of capacity in the DCR category, and 1.47 GW for the other 375 MW in the open category. Read more

ReneSola to supply another 57 MW of solar PV modules to UK projects

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 8:41 (Solarserver)

ReneSola Ltd. (Jiashan, China) has announced that it is supplying Isolux Corsán Servicios SA (Madrid) with 57 MW of its Virtus solar photovoltaic (PV) modules for three projects in the United Kingdom. ReneSola began delivering Virtus PV modules with an average output of 250 watts for projects in Cornwall, Dorset and Norfolk, England during December 2013. The company had previously supplied 31.7 MW of Virtus II PV modules to Isolux Corsán for a plant in Suffolk which it completed in December 2013. Read more

First Solar starts construction of largest PV power plant in Australia

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 1:06 (PV-Tech)

On cue, First Solar said it had started construction of a 102MW (AC) PV power plant in Nyngan, New South Wales (NSW). Read more

First Solar breaks ground on Australia's largest solar PV project

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 0:38 (Solarserver)

First Solar Inc. (Tempe, Arizona, U.S.) has begun construction on a 102 MW-AC solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Australia. The Nyngan Solar Project in New South Wales is not only the largest PV project in Australia, but is larger than any operational solar plant in the Southern Hemisphere. Read more

India to Make Offshore Wind Plan with EU Help, Trade Group Says

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 14:54 (Renewable Energy World)

India is seeking advice from the European Union on how to develop its potential for generating electricity from offshore wind turbines. Read more

SolarWorld’s Actions Are Damaging the US Solar Industry

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

As someone who has played an active role in the development and growth of the U.S. solar industry over the last 15 years, I view the actions by German-based SolarWorld to obtain costly government-imposed tariffs on imports of solar cells and panels to be a grave threat to our industry’s growing success. Driving down the costs of solar, not raising them, should be our primary goal. Read more

Hydropower 2014 Outlook: Hydro Industry To Expand Its Global Reach

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 14:00 (Renewable Energy World)

For decades large-scale hydropower developments have been viewed as something of a pariah within the renewable energy sector. Indeed, despite an acknowledged contribution to sustainable energy development — hydropower’s global kWh contribution dwarfs all other renewable technologies — it has largely been excluded from considerations that benefit other forms of renewable power generation and has weathered widespread criticism over projects deemed unsustainable. Read more

Creating a Magma-enhanced Geothermal System in Iceland

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 16:05 (Renewable Energy World)

In 2009, a borehole drilled at Krafla, northeast Iceland, as part of the Icelandic Deep Drilling Project (IDDP), unexpectedly penetrated into magma (molten rock) at only 2100 meters depth, with a temperature of 900-1000 C. The borehole, IDDP-1, was the first in a series of wells being drilled by the IDDP in Iceland in the search for high-temperature geothermal resources. Read more

Countries Vow to Form Africa Clean Energy Corridor

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 22:43 (Renewable Energy World)

Nineteen countries have pledged to create an Africa Clean Energy Corridor to exploit the continent’s vast renewables potential. Read more

Skytron targets US utility-scale PV market after UL certification of power plant controllers

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 17:07 (PV-Tech)

Power control and monitoring equipment specialist, skytron energy has received cETLus approval to the UL/CSA 60950-1 equipment safety standard rounds of UL certification for its skycontrol power plant controller. Read more

Advanced Energy acquires power control modules business from AEG Power

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 16:53 (PV-Tech)

US-based PV inverter specialist, Advanced Energy Industries (AE) has bought the industrial power control modules business of AEG Power Solutions, which was said to have annual revenue of around €14 million (US$19.1 million). Read more

Who's Your Energy Daddy?

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 16:04 (Renewable Energy World)

For now the Energy Daddy remains large, investor-owned utilities, and ostensibly locally-focused rural cooperatives and municipal utilities. But the energy landscape of today gives me uncomfortable reminders of the Athenian tragedy by Sophocles — the Oedipus tale. John Farrell, ILSR’s Director of Democratic Energy, gave this panel presentation at t Read more

Germany First in Europe to Tax Consumer Use of Clean Energy

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 13:58 (Renewable Energy World)

Germany is set to become the first nation in Europe to charge owners ofrenewable energy plants for their own use of electricity, part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s effort to contain rising power bills. Read more

Bill Clinton calls for global fund to reform ‘unequal’ energy finance

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 10:17 (PV-Tech)

Former US president Bill Clinton has called for global investment in renewable energy and changes to the “inequality” of current financing mechanisms in the energy sector. Read more

NAPIT: 2014 is the year of renewables and energy efficiency

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 7:06 (Solarpowerportal)

The National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers (NAPIT) claims that 2014 is perfectly placed to become the year of renewables and energy efficiency in the UK. Read more

Tesla Revs Up China Electric Vehicle Engine

Tuesday, 1.28.2014 - 16:01 (Renewable Energy World)

U.S. electric car maker Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) is setting some tough goals for itself during its first year in China, aiming to take advantage of government incentives and its high-end brand image to quickly take a big share of the market. I did a little math based on the company’s latest remarks, and its ambitious target for this year would represen Read more