Japanese JV gains foothold in India with AEG inverter fab acquisition

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 13:15 (PV-Tech)

Energy solutions and infrastructure company, AEG Power Solutions, has sold its inverter factory in Bangalore, India to a joint venture between Japan’s Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric. Read more

Huawei extends European inverter reach

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 13:09 (PV-Tech)

Chinese technology giant Huawei has expanded the scope of its PV inverter business in Europe. Read more

Semprius claims new CPV cell offers ‘pathway to 50% efficiency’

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 13:02 (PV-Tech)

North Carolina-based high-efficiency concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) manufacturer Semprius claims it has developed a new stacked solar cell that brings closer the promise of 50% conversion efficiency. Read more

AEG sells Indian inverter business, factory to TMEIC

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 9:29 (Solarserver)

Toshiba Mitsubishi Electrical Industrial Systems Corporation (TMEIC, Tokyo) has acquired AEG Power Solutions BV's (Zwanenburg, The Netherlands) Indian subsidiary and its 7,400 square meter solar photovoltaic (PV) inverter manufacturing facility in Bangalore, by purchasing 100% of the company's share capital. Read more

Semprius produces 43.9% efficient four-junction PV cell

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 9:23 (Solarserver)

Semprius Inc. (Durham, North Carolina, U.S.) reports that it has begun producing four-junction, stacked solar photovoltaic (PV) cells using its proprietary micro printing process, with initial trial runs yielding efficiencies up to 43.9%. This is less than 1% below the current PV cell world record set by Soitec SA (Bernin, France) in September 2013 of 44.7% efficiency, which was also achieved with a four-junction cell. Semprius expects to achieve efficiencies greater than 50% “in the near future”. Read more

Yingli prices USD 83 million follow-on share offering

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 8:37 (Solarserver)

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (Baoding, China) has announced that its follow-on stock offering of 25 million shares has been priced at USD 3.50 per share. If fully subscribed, this will yield Yingli USD 83 million, much of which it plans to use for its solar photovoltaic (PV) project business. This includes USD 55 million to invest in PV projects with Shanghai Sailing Capital Management (Shanghai). Read more

Wagner & Co. files for insolvency

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 8:30 (Solarserver)

Citing negative changes in the solar photovoltaic (PV) and thermal markets, Wagner & Co. Solartechnik GmbH (Cölbe, Germany) has applied for insolvency protection in German courts. Dr. Jan Markus Planther of law firm Brinkmann & Partner has been appointed preliminary insolvency administrator. Dr. Planther has said that while the conditions of the company are difficult, that he will attempt to preserve as many jobs as possible. Read more

UK braced for review of large-scale solar support

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 17:59 (PV-Tech)

The UK government is poised to announce a review of the support available to the country’s booming large-scale PV sector only weeks after saying it had no further plans to change agreed rates. Read more

DECC set to review support for large-scale solar

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 17:32 (Solarpowerportal)

The department of energy and climate change (DECC) is set to announce a review into the level of support offered to large-scale solar through the Renewable Obligation scheme. Read more

Solar Wind Wins Approval for $1.5 Billion Arizona Power Tower

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 16:38 (Renewable Energy World)

Solar Wind Energy Tower Inc. won approval from an Arizona city to develop a $1.5 billion project that would use ambient desert heat to create a draft to generate electricity, in a concrete colossus that would be the tallest structure in North America. Read more

Shunfeng Acquires Suntech in Bid to Become Largest Solar Supplier

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 16:30 (Renewable Energy World)

Wuxi Suntech Power’s 3 billion yuan ($480 million) acquisition by Shunfeng Photovoltaic International Ltd. paves the way for the company to rejoin the ranks of the largest solar manufacturers. Read more

How Solar Is Cutting Grid Costs

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 16:10 (Renewable Energy World)

With solar power, “we can avoid that $100 million investment in transmission lines, distribution lines, in capital infrastructure…” That was Vice President of Environmental Affairs Michael Deering of the Long Island Power Authority in a remarkable podcast interview, explaining how local solar energy can help offset expensive grid upgrades for bring Read more

China Takes a Hands-off Approach to Solar Market Recovery

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 16:00 (Renewable Energy World)

China sent an important message to the struggling solar panel sector last week when one of the country’s major manufacturers was forced to turn to global capital markets to raise new funds, hinting that it couldn’t receive the money from state-backed domestic sources. The move sparked a sell-off for New York-listed shares of Yingli Green Energy (NY Read more

Enthusiasm for Oklahoma solar ruling wanes

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 14:56 (PV-Tech)

A recent ruling by the governor of Oklahoma, which had initially been welcomed by pro-solar advocacy groups for apparently supporting solar, has come under fire from some quarters following closer scrutiny. Read more

NREL Unlocking Secrets of New Solar Material

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 14:48 (Renewable Energy World)

A new solar material that has the same crystal structure as a mineral first found in the Ural Mountains in 1839 is shooting up the efficiency charts faster than almost anything researchers have seen before—and it is generating optimism that a less expensive way of using sunlight to generate electricity may be in our planet's future. Read more

Egypt minister makes US$1 billion commitment to solar energy

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 14:11 (PV-Tech)

Egypt will invest US$1 billion in solar energy in the coming years, according to the state-run information service. Read more

Large Scale Solar UK conference begins today

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 13:49 (Solarpowerportal)

Planners and government officials gathered at Kelham Hall, Nottinghamshire, today to hear directly from the solar industry about the benefits of solar farms in the UK. Read more

ABB to withdraw from bidding on new solar EPC contracts

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 13:43 (PV-Tech)

Industrial firm ABB has said it is to cease bidding on new turnkey EPC solar power generation contracts due to the poor performance of is Power Systems segment. Read more

FiT launch gets Algeria’s large-scale PV plan underway

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 12:32 (PV-Tech)

Algeria has launched a feed-in tariff for large-scale PV power plants to support its goal of building 800MW of solar capacity by 2020. Read more

LDK Solar agrees another major wafer deal

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 12:13 (PV-Tech)

Struggling wafer manufacturer LDK Solar has agreed an 850MW wafer supply deal with Taiwanese cell manufacturer Gintech. Read more

AMP secures 20-year PPA for solar PV project in Jordan

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 9:17 (Solarserver)

A consortium led by AMP Solar Group Inc. (Toronto) has secured a power purchase agreement (PPA) for a 20 MW-AC solar photovoltaic (PV) project in Northern Jordan with the nation's National Electric Power Company (Amman, Jordan). The project will additionally benefit from a guarantee provided by the Jordanian government, and the PV plant is expected to be completed in mid-2015. The PPA is one of 12 awarded through Jordan's first renewable energy solicitation, and will be the first PV project to date in Northern Jordan. Read more

NPD Solarbuzz: UK to become Europe's largest solar PV market in 2014

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 9:17 (Solarserver)

NPD Solarbuzz (Santa Clara, California, U.S.) has published a new report which finds that 124 large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects have recently received planning approval in the UK, with many of these expected to be completed within the next 12 months. Read more

LDK Solar to supply 765 MW of silicon wafers to Solartech

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 9:13 (Solarserver)

A subsidiary of LDK Solar Co. Ltd. (Xinyu City, China) has signed an agreement to supply 765 MW of silicon wafers to Solartech Energy Corp. (Gueishan, Taiwan) from May 2014 through April 2017. LDK is formally in liquidation, however as the company is registered in the Cayman Islands this does not affect its Chinese operating subsidiaries. Additionally LDK's Chinese operations are being supported with financing from Chinese banks which can not be used to pay offshore creditors. Read more

Kyocera's solar PV business shows strong quarterly, annual results

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 8:46 (Solarserver)

Kyocera Corp. (Kyoto, Japan) has released results for the financial quarter ending March 31st, 2014. The company reports a 3.0% year-over-year increase in revenues to USD 751 million in its Applied Ceramics division, which makes solar photovoltaic (PV) products. The division also reported a 14% operating margin, a significant increase over both the previous quarter and prior year. Results were similarly strong for Applied Ceramics over Kyocera's fiscal year (FY) 3/2014, which ended on March 31st, 2014. Revenues grew 22% during this period to USD 2.66 billion, at a 12% operating margin. Read more

Too Conservative? EIA Projects Renewables to be 16-27 Percent of US Electricity Supply by 2040

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 17:11 (Renewable Energy World)

Today, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its renewable electricity generation projections as part of its "Annual Energy Outlook — 2014" (AEO2014). Read more

DECC: UK public reaffirms strong support for renewable energy

Tuesday, 4.29.2014 - 15:39 (Solarpowerportal)

The UK public has shown consistent support for renewable energy in the third of a series of opinion surveys published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Read more