Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

A Bloomberg report released on February 22 claims that German chancellor Angela Merkel's government will again revise the subsidy cuts for farmland converted to take solar systems. According to an unpublished draft put together by the government, this kind of installation will no longer receive financial support.

PNM, New Mexico’s largest electric utility, has signed a deal with First Solar to build 22MW (AC) of utility-scale photovoltaic solar power plants in the state. The solar company will construct the facilities using its cadmium-telluride thin-film PV panels at five separate sites within PNM’s service territory.

What is being called the largest solar PV project in California and the biggest thin-film plant in the U.S. has started commercial operations ahead of schedule. The 21MW (AC) site in Blythe, developed and built by First Solar and acquired by NRG Energy in November, operates under a 20-year power purchase agreement, with the electricity generated sold to Southern California Edison.

Taking note of the focus that investors and the solar industry in general were waiting to hear from the guidance given today by First Solar about its operational performance expectations for 2010, the thin film leader kicked off its investor meeting in New York by announcing a capacity expansion plan that includes the buildout of another eight production lines at its manufacturing hub in Kulim, Malaysia. Fiscal year 2010 net sales are projected to be $2.7 billion to $2.9 billion.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that plans for a 970-acre solar PV farm near the Salton Sea in southeastern California have been shelved because of cost concerns. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power made the move at the same time that City Council members indicated they were not going to back the project. The 55MW (AC) Niland project, announced in August, was to have been designed, engineered, and built by First Solar and equipped with the thin-film PV company's CdTe modules.

juwi solar has begun construction on two large-scale PV installations in the U.S. Following the successful completion of the New Jersey-based 2.2MW for the Mars Snackfood headquarters, juwi has started on the two new projects: one (12MW) in Upper Sandusky, Ohio; the other (15MW) in Jacksonville, Florida. Both projects are scheduled for completion by summer 2010.

Another First Solar executive will be departing the company soon, according to an 8-K report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. John Gaffney, the thin-film PV firm's current executive VP/corporate secretary, will end his tenure as of Dec. 1. Former EVP John Carrington left the company in late August, shortly before Robert Gillette was named as new CEO. Gaffney has been in charge of First Solar's sustainable development and environmental affairs, and has also headed its legal and corporate development departments.

At the recent China-U.S. Presidential summit, attended by several dignitaries including President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, the fate of the what is being referred to as the world’s largest solar power plant was sealed. Following the announcement in early September of the establishment of the plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, a cooperation framework has now been signed that provides further details on the various aspects of the project.

An 18-acre solar garden has been dedicated adjacent to Mars Chocolate's North America headquarters in Hackettstown, NJ. The 2.15MW (DC) power plant--which is comprised of more than 28,000 ground-mounted First Solar thin-film PV modules--is said to be the largest solar energy facility installed in New Jersey by a food manufacturing plant and the first project completed by Public Service Enterprise Group's PSEG Solar Source subsidiary.

First Solar and Enbridge have signed a deal for the Canadian energy company to buy a 20MW solar farm that the PV firm has developed and is building near Sarnia, Ontario. The project, which will be the largest PV installation in Canada when it's completed by the end of the year, is being built by First Solar under a fixed-price engineering, procurement, and construction contract and will use more than 370,000 of the company's CdTe thin-film modules. In other news, First Solar has been added to the S&P500 stock index.