Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

Ever wonder how many large-scale renewable energy projects might be on the drawing board in California? Thanks to the latest announcement from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, we now have a round number—244. Although the “comprehensive list” of proposed projects does not include every solar, wind, geothermal, or other clean energy system planned for the Golden State, it does offer a peek at nearly 70GW of green-powered possibilities that would push toward meeting the Guv’s renewable portfolio standard goal of 33% by 2020. And guess what: the vast majority of those projects and gigawatts would rely on our favorite inexhaustible feedstock—the sun.

CIGS could soon have a new name and face on Wall Street--Solyndra. While much of the business community was sipping egg nog and eating Christmas cookies at office parties or buying armloads of presents on the final Friday before the coming holiday, Solyndra filed an S-1 registration statement for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The purveyor of cylindrical copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide thin-film photovoltaics will trade under the symbol “SOLY,” according to SEC documents, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley running the book on the proposed offering, joining Ascent Solar and DayStar as the only publically traded CIGS pure-play companies. CEO Chris Gronet and his team have come a long way in a short time since emerging from stealth mode with a splash a little more than a year ago, and the prospectus filed as part of the S-1 provides a new level of granularity about the progress and plans of the company.

In yet another sign of the American Midwest becoming a solar production hub, GlobalWatt has chosen to build its first photovoltaic panel factory in Saginaw, MI. The company has been lured by an attractive package of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of employment and business tax benefits offered by state and local agencies. The plan is for some $177 million to be spent on the facility over the next three to five years, which should result in the creation of at least 500 new jobs. GlobalWatt's Rohit Arora talks about the company and its plans for the 100MW factory in the latest blog.

As we progress further into what will soon be 2010 - 'the year solar PV will take off', more changes are being made in the world of photovoltaics in Australia. This country has seen many changes to its renewable situation during 2009, with new feed-in tariffs announced, improved and tweaked as the continent moves towards its goal of a nationwide gross feed-in tariff scheme.

One of the prime movers in Ascent Solar's efforts to develop roll-to-roll commercial manufacturing of the company's flexible CIGS thin-film PV modules is retiring. Prem Nath, Ascent's senior VP of production operations, will leave the firm on Jan. 15, 2010. He will continue to work with the company as a consultant.

Florian Holzapfel, an executive board member of Q-Cells since 2006, will now take over as CEO of Calyxo, a subsidiary of Q-Cells SE Germany, effective the beginning of 2010.  

SolarCity has announced that David White has been brought on as the company's chief financial officer. With over 20 years of experience in executive-level financial management, White will oversee financing and accounting functions. The new appointment has come just as the company passes 5,000 customers and introduces operations in Colorado.