Mission Solar Energy targeting N-type mono c-Si solar cell production in Q3

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 13:15 (PV-Tech)

Mission Solar Energy, formerly known as Nexolon America, a joint venture with Korean-owned OCI Solar Power and partner of Texas-based CPS Energy has started PV module production in June and expects N-type monocrystalline solar cell production to start in the early part of the third quarter of 2014. Read more

BMW Offers Fast Battery Chargers to Help Electric Vehicle Sales

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 12:15 (Renewable Energy World)

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world’s biggest maker of luxury vehicles, is offering drivers of the i3 city car speedier and smaller auto-battery chargers in an effort to make driving electric vehicles more practical. Read more

Global PV body could ease trade woes, says EPIA

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 10:58 (PV-Tech)

A new mooted global PV industry association could help to dissolve increasing trade friction, the president of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) has said. Read more

SPI Solar attracts another US$21.75 million private investment

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 22:15 (PV-Tech)

PV project developer, SPI Solar, has completed its second private placement of shares to generate another US$21.75 million in new funding, just two weeks after its first private placement. Read more

SunPower begins construction on ‘hold co’ 135MW California solar project

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 19:46 (PV-Tech)

Solar manufacturer and developer, SunPower has begun construction of a 135MW solar power plant. Read more

Fraunhofer: Solar ‘significantly’ more profitable than onshore in Germany

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 18:55 (PV-Tech)

Photovoltaic generation systems in Germany are “significantly” more profitable than onshore wind installations, new research by Fraunhofer ISE has concluded. Read more

Free Solar Marketing on Facebook Is Mostly Dead, Now What?

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 15:35 (Renewable Energy World)

The good news: Facebook can still be a powerful tool to share information and build your brand and referrals. The bad news: Facebook solar marketing is no longer free. Well, technically, yes, it is still a free platform for your solar company to use, but its effectiveness as a free solar marketing tool is pretty much over. If you haven’t noticed, F Read more

CSUN signs UK distribution deal for Turkish-made panels

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 14:17 (Solarpowerportal)

Chinese module maker CSUN has signed a deal with UK importer CPH Solar for its Turkish made panels. Read more

REC Solar grows sales pipeline in the attractive U.S. PV market

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 12:53 (Solarserver)

REC Group (Sandvika, Norway) announced during its second-quarter earnings presentation on July 25th, 2014 that the company has experienced growth in its sales pipeline in the United States. REC refers to its intensified focus on the U.S. market and position as a supplier of tariff-free solar photovoltaic (PV) panels from its vertically integrated manufacturing facility in Singapore in the context of U.S. tariffs on imported PV products from China. Read more

SPCG and Kyocera complete 35 solar plants in Thailand

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 12:41 (PV-Tech)

Solar farm developer, SPCG and PV module manufacturer, Kyocera have completed and commissioned the last of 35 solar power plants in Thailand. Read more

CSUN signs UK distribution deal for Turkish-made panels

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 12:39 (PV-Tech)

Chinese module maker CSUN has signed a deal with UK importer CPH Solar for its Turkish made panels. Read more

SPCG, Kyocera complete 35 utility-scale solar PV plants in Thailand totalling 257 MW

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 10:54 (Solarserver)

SPCG Public Company Limited (SPCG, Bangkok Thailand) and Kyocera Corporation (Kyoto, Japan) on July 29th, 2014 announced the full operational launch of one of Southeast Asia’s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) power project. Since 2010, 35 “solar farms” totaling 257 megawatts (MW) have been constructed under the project, and connected to the utility grid in Northeastern Thailand. Read more

First private solar PV plant to feed into Cape Town’s electricity grid

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 10:35 (Solarserver)

The 1.2 MW Black River Park Solar Project has broken new ground in becoming the first integrated solar photovoltaic (PV) plant to transmit electricity back into the City of Cape Town’s (South Africa) electrical distribution network, Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA), tenants of the business park, announced. The second phase of the PV project which comprises a further 500 kW of solar power generation capacity, was approved without any subsidies based on the performance of the initial 700 kW which has been operating above expectations since August 2013, GBCSA notes. Read more

ET Solar supplies 10 MW of anti-glare PV Modules to a German project

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 10:27 (Solarserver)

ET Solar Energy Corp. (Nanjing, China) on July 28th, 2014 announced that it has supplied 10 MW of anti-glare solar photovoltaic (PV) Modules to a solar power plant located in Obermeitingen, Germany. Hamburg (Germany) based Enerparc AG was the solar power plant’s EPC contractor. ET Solar's anti-glare Modules were selected to be installed in the project, which was grid-connected in Q2 of 2014. Read more

Comtec Solar announces wafer production capacity expansion at Malaysian PV facility

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 9:08 (Solarserver)

Comtec Solar Systems Group Limited (Shanghai, China) announced that the company has commenced qualification process with two potential new customers based in USA for the sales of its ‘‘Super Mono Wafers’’. Due to the estimated growth in demand from existing customers and potential new customers, Comtec Solar plans to further expand production capacity for solar photovoltaic (PV) wafers in Malaysia for approximately 300 MW. Read more

Yingli Solar on U.S. DOC decision: Tariffs for imported PV products will increase the price of solar energy in America

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 9:03 (Solarserver)

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (Boading, China), known as "Yingli Solar", on July 28th, 2014 commented on the preliminary anti-dumping duty tariff decision by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the import of certain solar photovoltaic (PV) products assembled in China using components from a third country. "Unfortunately, this determination will increase the price of solar energy in America, severely jeopardizing the U.S. solar industry's tremendous progress in cost competiveness and affordability when compared with traditional energy sources," commented Robert Petrina, Managing Director of Yingli Green Energy Americas Inc. Read more

TASC: New finding reveals Xcel Energy's flip flop on solar PV net metering

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 8:55 (Solarserver)

Last week in Denver, Coloradans packed into the Public Utilities Commission meeting rooms to support the cornerstone rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) policy net metering, the Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) reports. Meanwhile, a new finding shows that utility Xcel Energy's Inc. (Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.) also knows the true benefits of net metering. TASC quotes a Denver Post article from 2007 that says "Xcel officials maintain that all customers benefit because solar systems delay the need to build expensive power plants and reduce prospective future taxes on carbon emissions from fossil-fuel power." Xcel's current attacks on net metering are a flip-flop meant to protect Read more

SunPower receives US$44.5 million in non-recourse debt through financing deal

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 3:15 (PV-Tech)

Infrastructure project investor Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, Inc., (HASI) has reached an agreement with solar panel manufacturer SunPower, Inc. that will see HASI offer US$44.5 million in non-recourse debt to help fund SunPower’s residential solar lease program. Read more

The Great Electric Company Growth Opportunity

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 11:38 (Renewable Energy World)

Energy use in the U.S. can be split into two large (very, very large) pies. One is electricity for use in homes, buildings, and industry, and the other is transportation, which is powered primarily by liquid fuels (gasoline and diesel) from oil. There are some exceptions, and small overlapping fuel uses — direct industrial use of liquid fuel (a fairly significant quantity), some liquids burned to make electricity (this used to be a significant amount, but is now only a very small amount), and now a very small amount of electricity used to power electric vehicles (EVs). Read more

Renesola sells 40 energy storage units in the UK

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 16:15 (Solarpowerportal)

The UK division of Chinese PV manufacturer ReneSola has sold 40 domestic energy storage units to an installation company in Essex, England. Read more

New Jersey Moves Forward with Distributed Energy Resource Plan

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 15:24 (Renewable Energy World)

New Jersey state regulators approved a subrecipient agreement last week with the state Economic Development Authority (EDA) to work jointly in the establishment and operation of the New Jersey Energy Resilience Bank (ERB), which will support the development of distributed energy resources at critical facilities throughout the state through a $200 million allocation from the state’s second Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR). Read more

Fifteen Clean Energy Yield Cos: Where's The Yield?

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 12:24 (Renewable Energy World)

In the first article of this survey of yield cos, I noted that many of the recent yield co IPOs have risen so far as to "lend the very term "yield co" a hint of irony" because rising stock prices are accompanied by falling annual dividend yields. Read more

Renewable energy storage for emerging markets: Social entrepreneur Titus Brenninkmeijer joins Powerstorm Capital Corp.'s board of advisors

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 10:21 (Solarserver)

Powerstorm Capital Corporation (Rancho Pales Verdes, Calif.) CEO Mike J. Freni on July 28th, 2014 announced the appointment of social entrepreneur Titus Brenninkmeijer to the Company's Board of Advisors. Powerstorm Capital has developed a containerized energy storage solution for emerging markets to shift away from diesel-centric power generation to reliable hybrid renewable energy sources. The system is built and ready to utilize a "mini-grid" that brings opportunity and quality of life to off-grid communities for the enormous numbers of people without access to power. Read more

CanSIA releases recommendation report for creating strong PV industry in Alberta

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 7:15 (PV-Tech)

The Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA) released a new report on solar energy policy recommendations for the province of Alberta Monday. Read more

US Navy awards contract for PV array projects to Pacific Energy Solutions

Tuesday, 7.29.2014 - 5:15 (PV-Tech)

The US Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Pacific has given a contract to Pacific Energy Solutions LLC for the procurement of energy generated from multiple renewable-energy projects. Read more