EPIA: ‘Confusing’ EC guidelines could stop states from hitting renewable goals

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 12:14 (PV-Tech)

The latest draft guidelines on state aid by the European Commission have drawn criticism from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), claiming they could “constrain member states’ capabilities to reach their 2020 binding renewable targets”. Read more

Centrotherm photovoltaics reports USD 40 million in new solar PV cell equipment orders in January, February 2014

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 8:33 (Solarserver)

Centrotherm photovoltaics AG (Blaubeuren, Germany) reports that it has received around EUR 30 million (USD 40 million) in orders from solar photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturers since the beginning of 2014. These include orders for diffusion, anti-reflective coating and conveyor furnaces for firing and sintering metal contacts in the production of high-efficiency PV cells. Centrotherm estimates that it currently has an order book around EUR 62 million (USD 84 million) in the single equipment segment of its photovoltaics business. Read more

CASE: Obama administration needs to step into SolarWorld’s Taiwan complaint

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 20:15 (PV-Tech)

Head of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE) Jigar Shah has requested that the Obama administration follow the lead of their German counterparts and quickly seek to negotiate a settlement of the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy ‘loophole’ case requested by SolarWorld. Read more

S.A.G. Solarstrom searching for new investors

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 19:15 (PV-Tech)

Insolvent German PV project developer, S.A.G. Solarstrom, has said it is seeking new investors as part of its restructuring plan will officially open insolvency proceedings on 1 March 2014. Read more

Hareon Solar to build three 50MW projects in two Chinese provinces

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 19:15 (PV-Tech)

Hareon Solar is preparing to build a total of 150MW of ground mounted PV power plants in the Chinese provinces of Hebei and Yunnan. Read more

Ivanpah achieves commercial operation

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 15:22 (Solarserver)

NRG Energy Inc. (Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.) has announced that its Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is now operational and delivering electricity to the California grid. Ivanpah is a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant, based on a solar power tower design. Read more

U.S. DOE: U.S. utility-scale solar PV more than 60% to cost-competitiveness goal

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 14:30 (Solarserver)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that the average levelized cost of electricity from utility-scale solar photovoltaics (PV) in the United States has fallen from USD 0.21/kWh in 2010 to USD 0.11/kWh at the end of 2013. Read more

Cogenra hybrid PV system among recipients of US$30 million ARPA-E awards

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 14:08 (PV-Tech)

A hybrid solar energy system developed by California-based Cogenra, has been selected for a US$1.996 million award from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). Read more

New Report Navigates Solar Securitization

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 14:00 (Renewable Energy World)

The U.S. solar industry is an $11.5 billion market with over 360,000 systems in place. Since 2008, solar capacity additions have exhibited a compound annual growth rate of over 50 percent, with strong gains anticipated in the coming years. Read more

Commissioning underway on Crescent Dunes CSP plant

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 13:15 (PV-Tech)

Commissioning has begun on Crescent Dunes, a concentrated solar power (CSP) project in the US claimed to be the largest of its kind in the world with molten salt storage capability. Read more

Landmark CSP plant Ivanpah now powering Californian homes

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 12:44 (PV-Tech)

A breakthrough in concentrating solar power (CSP), the US’s 392MW Ivanpah Solar Electric system has now reached full commercial operation. Read more

Aleo solar dodges bullet thanks to Bosch deal

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 12:34 (PV-Tech)

Aleo solar has said it expects losses for 2013 exceeded half its share value triggering an extraordinary general meeting. Read more

NRDC and U.S. Utilities Urge Grid Payments for Rooftop Solar

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 12:00 (Renewable Energy World)

The Natural Resources Defense Council and the U.S. utility industry’s trade group are jointly calling for a new rate structure to account for customers that generate their own power with rooftop solar systems. Read more

Flanders ends Green Certificate program; solar PV declared profitable without subsidies

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 8:39 (Solarserver)

The Green Certificate program for solar photovoltaics (PV) in the Flemish region of Belgium will come to an end on February 17th, 2014, according to the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA, Brussels). The program incentivized PV systems up to 10 kW. Flemish Minister of Energy Freya Van den Bossche has stated that the subsidy is no longer needed as PV systems are now sufficiently profitable without government support, using on the Financial Gap model which is based on a 5% rate of return over 15 years. Read more

NREL study finds additional value with 6–9 hours of storage in concentrating solar power plants

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 8:28 (Solarserver)

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL, Golden, Colorado, U.S.) has released a new report that looks at the performance and cost values of different designs of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants integrated with energy storage. The report found additional benefits for integrating six to nine hours of thermal energy storage, noting that simple levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) models miss the value that these plants add. It also found that the value of delivered energy for dry-cooled solar power tower and parabolic trough CSP plants integrated with storage is similar. Read more

Renewable Energy Generation to Expand UK Waste-fired Bioenergy Plan

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 13:52 (Renewable Energy World)

Renewable Energy Generation Ltd., a British low-carbon asset developer backed by BlackRock Inc., will build six waste-to-power plants with Caterpillar Inc. and Finning U.K. Ltd. in an expansion of plans published last month. Read more

Wind Energy 2014 Outlook: Major Markets Recover, Battling Policy and Grid Concerns

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 14:00 (Renewable Energy World)

Preliminary estimates suggest worldwide wind energy installations were 34-35 GW in 2013, "a substantial dropoff" from a record-setting 2012, according to Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). In fact 2013 will have been the first time in nearly a decade where global demand contracted, almost entirely because of softness in demand in the U.S. and China, added Steen Broust Nielsen, partner with Make Consulting. Read more

US Should Heed Renewable Integration Lessons from Europe or Face Consequences, Says NARUC

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 17:46 (Renewable Energy World)

In integrating renewable energy to the electric grid, the United States has a unique opportunity to assess lessons learned in Europe and not replicate the disequilibrium that has occurred overseas to consumers, power producers and capital markets, according to Jeffrey Altman, senior advisor, Finadvice GmbH. Read more

US Should Heed Renewable Integration Lessons from Europe or Face Consequences, Says NARUC Panelist

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 17:46 (Renewable Energy World)

In integrating renewable energy to the electric grid, the United States has a unique opportunity to assess lessons learned in Europe and not replicate the disequilibrium that has occurred overseas to consumers, power producers and capital markets, according to Jeffrey Altman, senior advisor, Finadvice GmbH. Read more

Green Banks Can Multiply the Impact of Clean Energy Financing

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 15:34 (Renewable Energy World)

Last week, the Clean Energy Finance Forum spoke with Reed Hundt, CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital, which has led the movement to create green banks in the United States during the last several years. Green banks are financial institutions that use public funding to leverage private financing of clean energy. Read more

Flanders rules residential PV “profitable” and cuts green certificate

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 14:29 (PV-Tech)

Flanders has declared residential PV “profitable” and is subsequently cutting its residential solar subsidy next week, according to the EPIA. Read more

SunPower plotting next-gen gigawatt-scale fab

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 13:20 (PV-Tech)

Major PV energy provider (PVEP), SunPower Corp, has revealed it is prepping plans for its next-generation ‘Fab 5’ manufacturing facility that would be on a larger scale than existing facilities. Read more

EPIA: EC guidelines on state aid could prevent states from reaching renewable energy goals

Thursday, 2.13.2014 - 12:37 (Solarpowerportal)

The latest draft guidelines on state aid by the European Commission have drawn criticism from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), claiming they could “constrain member states’ capabilities to reach their 2020 binding renewable targets”. Read more