Kyocera to produce new higher performance mono and multicrystalline cells

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 18:37 (PV-Tech)

Japanese PV manufacturer, Kyocera is preparing to launch solar modules around mid-year with multicrystalline cells with 18.6% conversion efficiency. Read more

Microinverters ‘disruptive but crucial’ for integration of renewables: Navigant

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 12:58 (PV-Tech)

Microinverters and DC optimisers are among the most disruptive technologies in the PV sector but will be crucial to the integration of renewables, according to a report by Navigant Research. Read more

PV startup HelioVolt suspends manufacturing while considering its options

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 8:55 (Solarserver)

Thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) startup HelioVolt Corporation (Austin, Texas, U.S.) has suspended manufacturing while it considers alternatives for its PV development and manufacturing business. The company's board will consider investments, joint ventures or even a merger or acquisition. HelioVolt says that it will also reduce personnel over the next 60 days in line with its new strategy. The move is attributed to partner SK Group's (Seoul) decision not to pursue its prior goals for PV. Read more

Jump-starting the Solar Undead and Improving Returns with Debt

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 21:47 (Renewable Energy World)

Debt can be one of the most challenging pieces to secure in the capital stack, and especially for solar projects under 1 MW. This is because renewable commercial banks see these deals as too small, regional banks have investment size and tenor limits that make financing difficult if not impossible, and local banks have limited experience with solar Read more

PG&E seeks PPA approval for 150 MW solar PV plant

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 17:52 (Solarserver)

Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E, San Francisco, California, U.S.) is seeking approval from the California Public Utilities Commission for a contract to buy power from a 150 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant. First Solar (Tempe, Arizona, U.S.) plans to build the CA Flats PV plant using its cadmium telluride thin-film PV modules on single-axis trackers in Monterey County, California. Read more

India presidential candidate, Modi: ‘Use solar to empower people’

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 17:00 (PV-Tech)

Presidential candidate, Narendra Modi called for India to utilise solar energy to empower its citizens. Read more

Utility Interests Push for Protectionism in State of Washington

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 16:49 (Renewable Energy World)

In Washington, a legislative effort to undermine solar net metering is already underway. Utility interests are pushing a protectionist, anti-free market bill that would safeguard the monopolistic control of electricity generation by a handful of utilities. This is part two of a series on attacks on net metering in 2014 from the Energy & Policy Inst Read more

Work begins on 55 MW solar PV plant in Israel

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 16:17 (Solarserver)

Grupo Clavijo (Viana, Spain) has begun installing its SP 1000 single-axis trackers on a 55 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in the Israeli settlement of Ohad. When complete in May 2014, the Halutziot plant will be the largest PV plant in Israel. Enlight Renewable Energy Ltd. (Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel) is developing the plant, which will comprise 180,000 crystalline silicon PV modules. Read more

Join Solar Power Portal at Ecobuild

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 15:38 (Solarpowerportal)

The Solar Power Portal team will be attending Ecobuild 2014 at the ExCel centre in London, taking place 4-6 March. Read more

Grupo Clavijo begins work on 55 MW solar PV plant in Israel

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 15:27 (Solarserver)

Grupo Clavijo (Viana, Spain) has begun installing its SP 1000 single-axis trackers on a 55 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in the Israeli settlement of Ohad. When complete in May 2014, the Halutziot plant will be the largest PV plant in Israel. Enlight Renewable Energy Ltd. (Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel) is developing the plant, which will comprise 180,000 crystalline silicon PV modules. Read more

Trina Solar strengthens Jordan presence with 2MW EPC deal

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 13:52 (PV-Tech)

China’s Trina Solar has been awarded a contract to build what is set to be Jordan’s largest PV installation. Read more

CSP set for period out in the cold: Lux Research

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 13:49 (PV-Tech)

The concentrating solar power (CSP) is set to shrink during the next four years but could make a recovery at the end of the decade, according to a report by Lux Research. Read more

John Lewis installs 96.5kWp solar array at new York store

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 13:03 (Solarpowerportal)

UK retail giant John Lewis has completed the installation of a 96.5kWp solar array at its new £15 million store in York. Read more

Rooftop PV bids for India’s national solar mission published

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 12:17 (PV-Tech)

The Solar Energy Corporation India (SECI) has revealed the successful bidders for on-grid rooftop PV tenders, to count towards the country’s national solar mission. Read more

IBC Solar completes 43MW solar farm in southern Germany

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 12:16 (PV-Tech)

IBC Solar has completed the last of ten sections of the Jura Solarpark in Bavaria. The plant is expected to provide electricity to over 10,000 homes. Read more

Centrosolar America becomes exclusive supplier of TSMC Solar CIGS modules in US

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 12:09 (PV-Tech)

In a strategic move ahead of possible new anti-dumping duties being imposed on c-Si PV manufacturers in China and Taiwan, CIGS thin-film producer, TSMC Solar has selected Centrosolar America as its exclusive distributor in North America. Read more

Listen Up: Protecting Your Right to Go Solar

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 12:05 (Renewable Energy World)

Your right to go solar and get full credit for the electricity you send back to the grid is threatened. Not just in California and Arizona and Hawaii — but also at virtually every single investor owned utility (the aptly named IOUs) in the country. Net metering is the simplest and (arguably) the fairest way to compensate solar customers for the energy they send back to the grid during the day. But from an IOU's perspective, net metering carves away at the foundation of their profits by reducing their need for new assets and reducing their revenues. It's a war between the Guaranteed Profit Utilities and millions of potential solar homeowners. Read more

India solar: Renew Power, Today Homes, Focal Energy win solar PV projects in Madhya Pradesh

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 9:22 (Solarserver)

RESolve Energy Consultants (Chennai, India) reports that six companies have been awarded a total of 100 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects through a bidding system in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Renew Solar Power (Gurgaon, India) will receive 30 MW of the 50 MW which it bid for, followed by Today Homes & Infrastructure (New Delhi) and Focal Energy (New Delhi), which will receive 20 MW each. Today Homes has also been awarded 50 MW under Phase 2 Batch 1 of the National Solar Mission (NSM). Read more

Yingli to supply 54 MW of solar PV modules for UK projects

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 9:17 (Solarserver)

Yingli Green Energy (Baoding, China) has announced that it will supply 54 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules to Grid Essence Holdings Ltd.'s (Nicosia, Cyprus) UK subsidiary for seven ground-mounted PV projects in England and Wales. Yingli will supply its YGE series modules for the plants in February and March 2014. Construction has already begun, and Grid Essence plans to complete the plants by the end of March 2014. Read more

Lux Research: Concentrating solar power has the potential to beat solar PV on cost

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 9:06 (Solarserver)

Lux Research Inc. (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.) has released a new report which says that despite an expected market decline for concentrating solar power (CSP) over the next five years, the technology has the potential to offer lower levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) than multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar photovoltaics (PV). In “Turning Up the Heat on Advanced Concentrating Solar Components”, Lux says that this could lead to a rebound in the technology. The company looks at various avenues for cost reduction, concluding that thermal energy storage systems offer the most potential. Read more

IEA: System-wide transformation needed for cost-effective integration of high levels of wind and solar

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 9:01 (Solarserver)

The International Energy Agency (IEA, Paris) has released a report which finds that enough wind and solar to meet 45% of electrical demand can be integrated at a system cost only 15% higher over the long term, provided that measures are taken to transform the entire electrical system. These measures include sufficient flexible generation and regional interconnection, more robust grids, power market improvements, and a better integrated and more responsive demand side. “The Power of Transformation” also finds that wind and solar work best together. Read more

Charting Offshore Wind's Next Course

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 21:23 (Renewable Energy World)

A conference this week in Boston packed some deep discussions about the U.S. offshore wind industry's progress, and opportunities and challenges ahead, from coordinating state and federal efforts to pursuing technology development, to simply getting the first steel into the water to show it can be done. Read more

REC Silicon enters JV to build 19,000 metric ton polysilicon plant in China using FBR technology

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 16:09 (Solarserver)

Subsidiaries of REC Silicon ASA (Sandvika, Norway) have entered into joint venture (JV) agreements with Shaanxi Non-Ferrous Tian Hong New Energy Co. Ltd. (Xi'an, China) to build a new polysilicon plant in China based on fluidized bed reactor (FBR) technology. Read more

Readers Respond Day 5: Can We Reach 100 Percent Renewable Energy?

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 14:28 (Renewable Energy World)

Several countries have announced ambitious goals to be powered completely by renewable energy, while other nations set smaller, incremental goals. These high aspirations have sparked quite a debate amongst industry experts, and we here at Renewable Energy World are curious to hear what you, our readers, have to say. Read more

Panel of experts recommends ending Germany’s renewable energy support

Thursday, 2.27.2014 - 13:42 (PV-Tech)

The Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (EFI), a panel appointed to make top-level recommendations to the German government, has suggested that state support for renewable energy should be curtailed. Read more