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California’s Governor Jerry Brown and US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar met at Recurrent Energy’s Elk Grove, California’s solar project so sign a MOU that aims to strengthen the state and federal partnership for renewable energy projects in California. The newly signed agreement broadens the partnership to include transmission projects and bring in new partners, including the California Independent System Operator, the California Public Utilities Commission and the California State Lands Commission.
State, town and school officials in Massachusetts joined Ameresco in celebrating the ribbon cutting on the first two phases of a US$6.05 million multi-phase solar initiative. The ceremony was held at Wilson Middle school, which now boasts a solar kiosk thanks to the installation by Ameresco. Similar solar installations are taking place at Kennedy Middle School, Bennett-Hemenway Elementary School, Natick High School, Memorial Elementary School and the Natick Community Senior centre.
Invenergy advised that GE had committed to supplying 23MW of solar equipment to its Grand Ridge Solar project, which is under construction in Illinois. Expected to be completed in mid-2012, the Grand Ridge Solar project will be, according to Invenergy, the largest solar farm in the Midwest. Located in La Salle County, and adjacent to Invenergy’s Grand Ridge Wind project, GE will provide its thin-film solar panels as well as packaged inverter skids that include Brilliance inverters, transformers and re-combiners in addition to its SunIQ plant controls.
Zep Solar advised that three of its latest PV continuing education courses had been approved and registered by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners’ (NABCEP), giving NABCEP certified PV installers the option to receive continuing education units for training on Zep’s mounting and grounding products. The approved Zep curriculum includes a two-hour “Zep System: Design and Installation” course and a four-hour intermediate and six-hour advanced course options.
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has filed with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for approval of a proposal offering its customers solar purchasing options. The proposal complements rooftop solar and includes two different pilot programs. Customers can opt buy some or all of their energy from solar projects located in SDG&E’s service territory or negotiate directly with a local solar provider, even if they do not own a home, cannot afford a solar investment, or do not have the ability to put photovoltaic panels on their roof.
SunPower has announced that the company has broken ground on a 13.78MW solar PV power system at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWS China Lake) in California, US. The plant is expected to create 140 jobs during construction and generate the equivalent of more than 30% of NAWS China Lake’s annual energy load, helping to reduce costs by an estimated US$13 million over the next 20 years. The plant was financed through a solar 20 year PPA.
MEMC has been forced to lower fourth quarter revenue guidance, just over a month after revisions were made as the company announced a major restructuring effort due to lower than expected PV project interconnections carried out by project developer subsidiary, SunEdison. MEMC revised revenue to be in the range of US$698 million to US$733 million, compared to December, 2011 guidance of between US$789 million to US$861 million.
DEGERenergie increased its turnover by about 20% in 2011. This year, the company expects a continued sharp rise in demand for its MLD tracking technology, with more than 47,000 systems installed worldwide in 46 countries.
Following in the footsteps of Talesun and Long Energy this year, SunEdison has confirmed that it will adopt PowerGuard Specialty Insurance Services’ PowerClip extended warranty protection.
JinkoSolar has announced that it has connected China Guangdong Nuclear Solar Energy Development’s 18MW PV power plant to China’s grid. The plant, located in Dunhuang, Gansu Province in west China, consists of 76,000 of JinkoSolar’s modules on a plot area of 400,000m2.
