Suntech signs up to Japan’s 50kW+ retail electricity market

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 17:07 (PV-Tech)

Suntech has become the latest solar company to sign up as a retail electricity provider in Japan. Read more

India launches US$163 million PV water pump programme

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 15:27 (PV-Tech)

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is to install 17,500 solar photovoltaic water pumps across the country. Read more

SOLON relocates Berlin HQ to UAE

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 13:55 (PV-Tech)

Module manufacturer SOLON will shut its Berlin headquarters and relocate to the UAE, it has announced. Read more

Ascent Solar reports over US$1 million for annual revenue

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 19:01 (PV-Tech)

Flexible CIGS thin-film firm, Ascent Solar surpassed US$1 million in annual revenue for the second time since it started operations in 2005. Read more

Defining an Industry: Solar PV Operations & Maintenance versus Asset Management

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 16:16 (Renewable Energy World)

There are more solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the U.S. than ever before and more of them are aging out of warranty coverage. The need to manage this portfolio of residential, commercial and utility-scale solar assets is accelerating a relatively new industry sector, solar PV operations and maintenance (O&M). Read more

RGS, Mosaic to offer Home Solar Loan

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 16:04 (Solarserver)

RGS Energy (Louisville, Colorado, U.S.) and Mosaic (Oakland, California, U.S.) have partnered to offer a loan product for residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, which can be invested in through Mosaic's crowdsourcing platform. This is an expansion of Mosaic's crowdsourcing concept to groups of residential PV systems. Read more

Greenwood Biosar completes Panama's first utility-scale solar PV plant at 2.4 MW

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 15:49 (Solarserver)

Joint venture Greenwood Biosar has built a 2.4 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Panama for Enel Green Power's (Rome) Panama subsidiary. This is the first utility-scale PV plant in the nation. The PV plant is located 14 kilometers from the town of Chitré in Herrera Province, and is connected to the EGESA grid network. Read more

Can Solar Power Help Marijuana Growers?

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

The sun has been around for a long time. So has marijuana. Legal pot in the U.S. hasn’t been around for a long time. In fact, earlier this year Colorado became the first state to sell legal marijuana in the U.S. With the country’s — if not the world’s — eyes on Colorado’s new policy, growers are looking for opportunities to better use their profits Read more

Singyes Solar starts initial 300MW phase of 1.1GW PV power plant project

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 14:36 (PV-Tech)

China-based PV project developer and manufacturer, China Singyes Solar Technologies Holdings, said it had started developing the first phase of a 1.1GW PV power plant project at the Hongshagang Industrial Park in Minqin County, Gansu Province, China. Read more

Chaori Solar defaults on Chinese bond repayment

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 14:15 (PV-Tech)

Chinese PV manufacturer Chaori Solar has become China’s first firm to default on a domestic bond after missing an interest repayment. Read more

UK government promises no changes to large-scale solar support before 2017

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 14:10 (PV-Tech)

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has said it will not review the country’s Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) bandings again before the scheme’s expiration in 2017. Read more

S.A.G. Solarstrom buys time with €1.5 million loan

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 13:12 (PV-Tech)

Struggling solar EPC firm S.A.G. Solarstrom has received a bridging loan to help it through its ongoing efforts to avoid bankruptcy. Read more

Manz reports record revenue in 2013

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 13:00 (PV-Tech)

Manufacturing equipment specialist, Manz reported preliminary record revenue of €266.2 million in 2013, with solar segment sales of only €10.4 million. Read more

Sunderland social housing gains £10 million solar loan

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 12:55 (Solarpowerportal)

Community renewables finance manager, Empower Community, has received a £10.1 million loan from a UK institutional pension investor. Read more

Japan May Set Higher Offshore Wind Subsidy, Reduce Solar Tariff

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 12:03 (Renewable Energy World)

Japan plans to reduce incentives for solar power and introduce a higher tariff for offshore wind than onshore turbines to encourage installations. Read more

NPD Solarbuzz: Global solar PV market to move from demand-constrained to supply-driven in 2014

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 8:46 (Solarserver)

NPD Solarbuzz Inc. (Santa Clara, California, U.S.) predicts that with the renewed balance of supply and demand in the global solar photovoltaic (PV) market, year-end demand will be set again by available supply levels in 2014. The company says that the demand-constrained environment in the last few years has been the catalyst of the industry's over-capacity problem which sank capacity utilization rates and resulted in capital expenditure declining to an eight-year low in 2013. Read more

France's solar PV market falls 45% to 613 MW in 2013

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 8:34 (Solarserver)

France's Ministry of Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development has released preliminary figures for solar photovoltaic (PV) plants commissioned in the fourth quarter and full year 2013, finding that the nation's PV market fell 45% to only 613 MW over the year. This is substantially lower than a previous estimate of 743 MW for 2013 published by French grid operator RTE (Paris), and may reflect different criteria. Despite this overall downward trend, in the fourth quarter of 2013 161 MW of PV plants were connected to the grid, a capacity 69% higher than the fourth quarter of 2012. Read more

Germany installs only 193 MW of solar PV in January 2014

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 8:27 (Solarserver)

Germany installed 193 MW of solar photovoltaics (PV) in January 2014, according to figures released by the nation's Federal Network Agency. This is a 16% increase over December 2013 but below any other month in the last four years. January 2014 installations bring the nation to 35.9 GW of installed PV. Due to the low rate of installations, feed-in tariff degressions have been at the minimum level of 1.0% since the beginning of 2014. Read more

Transmission Tweak Promises Big Cost Benefits for Offshore Wind

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 18:37 (Renewable Energy World)

Offshore wind development is being pushed further out into deeper waters, emphasizing longer, higher-capacity transmission systems. Most newer offshore wind farms from Europe to the U.S. are looking at hundreds of kilometers of transmission lines: the U.K. Crown Estate's Round 3 allocations, interconnection systems from Germany's North Sea to the U.K.'s National Grid Western Link, and the proposed Atlantic Wind Connector in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic. Read more

Hawaii Senator Blasts Agencies for Geothermal Project Standstill

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 15:14 (Renewable Energy World)

Attorneys and a state Senator are getting involved in a still-unawarded geothermal contract Hawaii Electric Light Co. (HELCO) had originally said would be awarded before the end of 2013. The RFP was posted in early 2013 and asked for a 50-MW influx of geothermal power development on the Big Island of Hawaii. Disruptions caused by the continuing delay include losses of the companies that submitted proposals, and a breach of public trust lawsuit has been brought against the State of Hawaii; Governor Neil Abercrombie; the Public Utilities Commission (PUC); Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs; Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Hawaiian Electric Read more

Navigating the Winding Road of Geothermal Project Financing, Part I

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 13:35 (Renewable Energy World)

It is no secret that renewable energy project development cycles present many unique challenges — as well as promising opportunities — for developers, investors and power users alike. Geothermal energy project development in particular can be a challenging endeavor, based on the extended timelines involved in successfully proving a resource, mitigating drilling risk and managing the subsurface reservoir on an ongoing basis. These are unique “geo sector-specific” issues that must be managed, in addition to the typical power plant development and construction issues inherent in any energy project endeavor. Due to these challenges, the corresponding financing of geothermal Read more

Liquid Metal Batteries May Be the Answer for Cheap Energy Storage

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 17:59 (Renewable Energy World)

A 40-foot trailer loaded with 25 tons of liquid metals may be the solution to the renewable energy industry’s biggest challenge: making sure electricity is available whenever it’s needed. Read more

Ten Clean Energy Stocks For 2014: March Update

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 15:06 (Renewable Energy World)

After a rough January, the stock market recovered in February, while clean energy stocks partied like it was 2013. Read more

Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2014: March Update

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 15:06 (Renewable Energy World)

After a rough January, the stock market recovered in February, while clean energy stocks partied like it was 2013. Read more

Philippines PV pipeline passes 1GW

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 13:51 (PV-Tech)

The pipeline of approved PV projects in the Philippines reached over 1GW in January, according to the country’s Department of Energy (DoE). Read more

Duke Energy Renewables purchases two 20MW projects in California

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 13:25 (PV-Tech)

Duke Energy’s subsidiary, Duke Energy Renewables, has acquired two 20MW PV projects in California from renewable energy developer Infigen Energy. Read more

DECC pledges not to change ROC bandings

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 12:54 (Solarpowerportal)

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has said it will not review the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) bandings again before the scheme’s expiration in 2017. Read more

Renewable Energy in MENA Area to Double Next Year, Desertec Says

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 12:47 (Renewable Energy World)

Clean energy assets in the Middle East and North Africa will more than double in capacity by the end of next year, the Dii GmbH industry association said. Read more

ESCO sells 23.5MW portfolio of UK PV projects to Gamma and SunEdison

Friday, 3.7.2014 - 12:11 (Solarpowerportal)

Renewable energy service company ESCO NRG Ltd. has sold two UK PV projects totalling 23.5MW to Spanish energy supplier Gamma Solutions and North American PV developer SunEdison. Read more