Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

Evergreen Solar's 5MW power plant in Apulia, Italy is now online. The project, which was designed and installed by project developer Greenvision, is the largest installation of Evergreen Solar panels to date.

Trina Solar has agreed to increase its yearly shipments of crystalline-silicon photovoltaic modules to Enerqos, an Italian PV system and power plant construction company headquartered in Monza. Under the terms of the deal, the vertically integrated Chinese solar manufacturer will augment its committed quantity of PV modules to Enerqos from 2MW in 2009 to 23MW this year.

The most ambitious rooftop solar initiative in the U.S. has taken a decidedly crystalline-silicon turn, as Southern California Edison has awarded a contract to SunPower to supply up to 200MW, or 80%, of the utility’s photovoltaic installation program. First Solar had won the contract to supply the first three projects with its CdTe thin-film panels. Company sources tell PV Tech that the remaining 45MW of capacity in the 250MW, five-year program is still up for grabs and that some of that megawattage could end up in ground-mounted arrays rather than on roofs.

Trina Solar's subsidiary, Changzhou Trina Solar Energy, has signed a sales agreement with Essco Wholesale Electric (the southwest U.S. unit of electrical supplies distributor Sonepar) for the supply of 25MW of crystalline-silicon PV modules in 2010. In addition to the initial 25MW, the agreement has an option for another 4MW of modules to be supplied during the year, if Essco decides to take advantage of it.

In a move to bring its production capacity up to 1GW by the end of 2010, Yingli Green Energy will add 300MW of monocrystalline-silicon-related solar manufacturing capabilities at its Baoding headquarters campus in China. The expansion news came as the company announced record PV module shipments for its recently completed fourth quarter and fiscal-year 2009. The vertically integrated company will build ingot, wafer, cell and module lines, and the solar cells will be based on the high-efficiency mono-c-Si technology developed through the Project Panda collaboration (which also includes the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands [ECN] and equipment supplier Amtech Systems). To help finance the new construction and buildout, the company has received a five-year project loan of RMB 1.5 billion ($219 million) and a working capital credit facility of RMB 250 million ($36 million), both granted by the Bank of Communications, Hebei Branch (BOCOM).

BioSolar has announced plans for an extended line of BioBacksheets used to protect PV modules compatible with conventional c-Si PV modules. BioSolar bio-based backsheet materials are made from renewable plant sources that reduce the cost of solar modules and eliminate the need for dangerous toxins found in petroleum based backsheets.

San Diego will be the location of Kyocera Solar's first PV module manufacturing plant in the United States. The company will site the assembly line in one of its existing facilities in the area, and hopes to begin production at the factory in the first half of the year. The initial targeted nominal capacity for the plant is 30MW, with the crystalline-silicon modules produced there designated for the U.S. market.

In the second solar module supply deal announced by the vertically integrated Chinese manufacturer over the past week, Yingli Green Energy has signed a sales agreement with SunDurance Energy to provide more than 10MW of Yingli Solar-branded crystalline-silicon PV modules to the New Jersey-based solar power system designer/integrator through the third quarter of 2010. The deal is also the largest in SunDurance's history.

SunPower has signed a strategic supply agreement with Toshiba, in which the Japanese company will order 32MW of high-efficiency monocrystalline-silicon solar panels from the PV firm this year. The SunPower modules will form the cornerstone of Toshiba's new residential solar offering in Japan, to be launched April 1.

Photovoltaic system integrator/installer groSolar has signed a deal with Solon to distribute and install PV modules coming off of the manufacturer's 100MW production line in Tucson, AZ. Solon’s modules from its U.S. factory qualify for the "Buy American" provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.