Shunfeng claims its Wuxi Suntech ‘rescue mission’ is on track

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 14:42 (PV-Tech)

Shunfeng Photovoltaic International has said that it hopes to press ahead with its “rescue mission” of Wuxi Suntech, regardless of an ongoing dispute between subsidiaries of Suntech Power Holdings. Read more

Brazilian start-up to build 40MW solar module production facility

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 13:12 (PV-Tech)

Brazilian start-up Pure Energy Generation has received approval for its plan to build a 40MW PV module production plant in the Brazilian state of Alagoas. Read more

EuPD Research: Germany to install 2.8 GW of PV in 2014

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 8:28 (Solarserver)

EuPD Research (Bonn, Germany) predicted that the German PV market will contract again in 2014 to 2.8 GW, at its German PV Market Briefing on February 7th, 2014. At the briefing, EuPD Senior Analyst Martin Ammon has stated that he expects PV plants smaller than 10 kW to experience a slight growth, but to see a continuation of the decline in the market for PV plants larger than 1 MW. Read more

Go-Time for Solar CSP: Ivanpah, Crescent Dunes Switch On

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 21:59 (Renewable Energy World)

It's a utility-scale concentrating solar (CSP) two-fer this week: Crescent Dunes kicks off its commissioning process, while Ivanpah's official dedication follows a month of on-again/off-again ramping. Read more

Canadian Solar planning PV module capacity expansion to 3GW

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 21:34 (PV-Tech)

PV energy provider (PVEP), Canadian Solar is considering increasing production capacity to 3GW in 2014. Read more

SolarReserve begins commissioning its Crescent Dunes solar CSP plant in Nevada

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 18:58 (Solarserver)

SolarReserve LLC (Santa Monica, California, U.S.) has completed construction and begun commissioning activities at its 110 MW Crescent Dunes concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in the U.S. state of Nevada. Full commercial operation is expected later in 2014. Read more

Rooftop and integrated PV performance gap is ‘less than you thought it was’

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 17:27 (Solarpowerportal)

A PV system rack-mounted above a pitched roof will produce only 3% more energy yield per year than a system utilising in-roof mounted modules, according to a new study by Viridian Solar. Read more

5 Common Mistakes That Solar Companies Make on Twitter

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 16:02 (Renewable Energy World)

Recently, I saw several common Twitter mistakes made by a few solar companies, and I thought these mistakes would be good information to share here using examples from @SolarWidgets, a fictional solar company. Twitter Mistake #1: Don’t start a Tweet with a @Somebody unless you only want a few people to see that Tweet. For example, this is wrong. Or Read more

China publishes 2014 solar PV market quotas by province under 14 GW cap

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 15:28 (Solarserver)

China's National Energy Board (NEB) has published new guidelines on the nation's solar photovoltaic (PV) market for 2014, calling for a cap on PV installations at 14 GW with specific limits for both distributed generation and utility-scale PV in each province. These add more detail to the government's previously established target of 800 MW of distributed PV and 605 MW of utility-scale plants for 2014. Read more

Hanwha Q-Cells, AGRenewables begin work on 24 MW UK solar PV plant

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 14:43 (Solarserver)

Hanwha Q-Cells GmbH (Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany) and AGRenewables (London) have begun construction work on a 24.3 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Cambridgeshire, England. AGR is leading the development of the Stowbridge PV plant, and Hanwha Q-Cells is supplying engineering, procurement and construction services, as well as its PV modules. Read more

Report: US adds 50,000 solar jobs in three years, one third in California

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 14:29 (PV-Tech)

Over 142,000 people are employed by the solar industry in the USA, with over a third based in California, a series of reports published by non-profit organisation The Solar Foundation has revealed. Read more

Canadian Solar Joins Fund-raising Club

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 14:27 (Renewable Energy World)

Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) was one of the best performers of China’s rebounding solar sector last year, and now it’s testing investor appetite for its comeback story with a plan to raise about $200 million by issuing stock and bonds. Investors gave the plan a lukewarm response, sparking a sell off that saw Canadian Solar’s shares drop 7.5 percen Read more

The Interconnection Nightmare in Hawaii and Why It Matters to the U.S. Residential PV Industry

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 14:04 (Renewable Energy World)

Since January 1, 2011, Hawaii’s three investor-owned utilities interconnected more than 250 MW of solar PV (almost two-thirds residential) to grids with aggregate peak loads around 1,500 MW. This boom ended five months ago when Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) abruptly stopped approving residential net metering (NEM) applications for most communities on the island of Oahu. HECO claimed the grid was over-saturated with solar and that further study and infrastructure upgrades were needed to restart the interconnection process. The sudden shift left thousands of consumers stranded in “solar limbo” and caused large-scale lay-offs. Yet for all the media attention the ongoing Read more

The Interconnection Nightmare in Hawaii and Why It Matters to the US Residential PV Industry

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 14:04 (Renewable Energy World)

Since January 1, 2011, Hawaii’s three investor-owned utilities interconnected more than 250 MW of solar PV (almost two-thirds residential) to grids with aggregate peak loads around 1,500 MW. This boom ended five months ago when Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) abruptly stopped approving residential net metering (NEM) applications for most communities on the island of Oahu. HECO claimed the grid was over-saturated with solar and that further study and infrastructure upgrades were needed to restart the interconnection process. The sudden shift left thousands of consumers stranded in “solar limbo” and caused large-scale lay-offs. Yet for all the media attention the ongoing Read more

Listen Up: What's the Deal with Solar Distributors?

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 14:00 (Renewable Energy World)

There are hundreds of companies that offer various types of solar equipment for sale in the U.S. — panels, inverters, racks, fasteners, wiring components, etc. Most of these manufacturers do not have the bandwidth or the marketing horsepower to sell to solar installers all over the country. So as in many other industries, the way solar equipment get from manufacturers to customers is via solar distributors. Read more

China confirms 14GW cap on solar subsidies for 2014

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 12:44 (PV-Tech)

The Chinese government has confirmed a 14GW solar subsidy quota for 2014. Read more

23.5 MW of solar PV plants came online through Georgia Power's Large-Scale Solar Initiative

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 8:47 (Solarserver)

Origis Energy (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.) has commissioned two solar photovoltaic (PV) plants totaling 23.5 MW-DC in the U.S. state of Georgia. The plants will participate in Georgia Power's (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.) Large-Scale Solar Initiative, under which the utility plans to build 50 MW of PV plants in the state by 2015. When two other programs are included, Georgia Power plans a total of 785 MW of PV by 2016. Read more

The solar industry objects to the European Commission's state aid proposals

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 8:43 (Solarserver)

The European Commission has put forth its draft guidelines to state aid, which the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA, Brussels) says oversteps the EC's legal authority and would hinder member states' ability to reach their 2020 renewable energy targets. The proposals include a call for technology-neutral auctions for “deployed” technologies, which would include solar photovoltaics (PV), as well as limiting feed-in tariffs for PV to installations smaller than 1 MW. The draft guidelines are currently in a consultation period which ends on February 14th, 2014. Read more

NPD Solarbuzz predicts 25% increase in 2014 polysilicon demand

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 8:34 (Solarserver)

NPD Solarbuzz Inc. (Santa Clara, California, U.S.) has released a report which predicts that demand for polysilicon for both solar photovoltaic (PV) and semiconductor applications will increase 25% in 2014 to 282,000 metric tons. The company's latest “Polysilicon and Wafer Supply Chain Quarterly” states that demand is driven by growing global PV markets, which it expects to total 49 GW in 2014. NPD Solarbuzz predicts steady but lower demand for very high-purity polysilicon for semiconductor applications. Read more

Donald Trump’s Appeal Against Scottish Wind Farm Rejected by Judge

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

U.S. real-estate investor Donald Trump’s legal challenge against a wind farm off the coast of Aberdeenshire was rejected by a Scottish judge. Read more

SunPower cuts PV production costs 20% in 2013 but capacity and revenue constrained in 2014

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 23:15 (PV-Tech)

Major PVEP (PV energy provider), SunPower Corp said that it reduced production costs by more than 20% in 2013, following-on from a greater than 20% reduction achieved in the previous year. Read more

Enel adds 40MW project to Peru PV pipeline

Wednesday, 2.12.2014 - 14:44 (PV-Tech)

The Peruvian arm of Italian renewables firm Enel Green Power has been granted permission to conduct a feasibility study for a 40MW PV project in southern Peru. Read more