Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

SunPower and K6 have signed an agreement under which the companies will build two 1MW photovoltaic solar power plants in the Puglia region, Italy. The two plants are located in Casamassima and Conversano; their power will be fed back into the grid, providing power for the local area.

CarbonFree Technology, Integrys Energy Services and SunPower have completed a 500kW rooftop solar power installation at Harvard University. The SunPower T5 system has been installed on the roof of one of the university's historic buildings in Watertown, MA, at a former military installation purchased by Harvard back in 2001.

Since announcing the project in September, SunPower has finished the first phase of Italy’s largest solar power plant in Montalto di Castro. Construction of the €120 million, 24MW plant was completed in eight months and was connected to the grid on November 30, several weeks ahead of schedule. The Montalto di Castro plant uses 78,720 SunPower solar panels as well as its tracker systems. The project is being built for SunRay Renewable Energy

SunPower’s internal investigation into unsubstantiated accounting entries at its Philippine manufacturing base has made progress, according to the company. The discrepancies were announced in November 2009 and concerned the inclusion of some figures on the financial records for 2009 that may have been intended for inclusion on the 2008 books.

Bank of America, Mendocino College and SunPower Corp. have announced the completion of a of a 929kW solar power system on Mendocino's Ukiah campus. Bank of America financed the solar power system, which is expected to save Mendocino College US$14 million in electricity costs over the next 25 years. The system was built in four months and uses SunPower solar panels equipped with the SunPower Tracker system.

Sun Light & Power, a SunPower Premier Dealer, has won the SunPower 'Intelegant Award for Excellence' for its residential solar-electric power system installations. The company received the award for its BIPV installation of a 4.05kW SunPower solar system on the home of D'Arcy Roche, San Mateo, California.

The University of California Merced is the newest member of SunPower’s solar power installations. SunPower completed a 1MW solar power system on the campus, which is expected to generate two-thirds of the campus’ electricity on summer afternoons and 20% of its annual electricity needs. SunPower will finance the project through a sale leaseback transaction.

Touted as the largest urban solar power plant in the U.S. a 10MW facility on the south-side of Chicago, the new plant will use Satcon’s 1MW Prism inverters. The site, owned and operated by Exelon Generation, was designed and is being constructed by SunPower Corp, using approximately 32,300 of its solar modules as well as SunPower’s trackers.

A solar module prototype developed by SunPower has clocked a 20.4% efficiency in tests, confirmed by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). The 333W full-sized solar panel consists of 96 third-generation cells with a total panel area of 1.6m². The prototype was funded the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under its Solar America Initiative (SAI), which was awarded to SunPower approximately two years ago.

Sunpower announced its plans to design and build a 1MW solar electric power plant, which is owned by Bluenergia. The solar plant will be located in Mesagne, Comune di Brindisi, Italy and has an anticipated completion date of sometime in early 2010.

SunPower and SunLink have settled a patent infringement case brought by SunPower before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. SunPower called the lawsuit against SunLink back in February 2008 asserting infringement of SunPower's patent rights covering its lightweight rooftop mounting products, SunPower PowerGuard and the SunPower T10 Solar Roof Tile.

The Italian photovoltaics market has just heated-up with news that SunPower is to supply solar modules, trackers and project management services at a 100MW power plant to built in Montalto di Castro, Italy with completion of a 24MW first phase expected by the end of the year. The project is planned to be a 100MW development that is expected to be fully operational in 2010. This would make the new solar power plant, easily the largest in Italy and a major project in Europe. The project is being financed by a consortium of both international and Italian banks, according to SunPower. The project is being built in collaboration with SunRay Renewable Energy, which will own the plant.

SunPower will produce up to a quarter of its solar panels in the United States in a year or slightly longer from now, according to Reuters. CEO Tom Werner told the audience at the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit that the company "will produce panels in the United States in four or five quarters."

SunPower Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on empowering, inspiring and motivating a new generation of solar leaders in communities around the world has now been launched. This is the first organization of its kind to be solely funded by a major solar company.

SunPower has said that it will supply 14MW of high-efficiency solar PV panels to the supermarket conglomerate, Casino Group by the end of 2009. Casino Group will use the panels to install solar power systems ranging from 900kW to 5MW on rooftops and parking structures on supermarket locations in mainland France and the islands of Mayotte and La Reunion.

The Chicago City Council voted Wednesday to approve the lease for what will be one of the largest urban solar photovoltaic power stations in the United States, according to a report by the Associated Press. The 10MW project, a joint development between Exelon and SunPower, will be built on 41 acres of a former "brownfield" industrial site on Chicago's South Side and will provide enough electricity to power as many as 1500 homes.

SunPower and Wells Fargo have joined together in a new collaborative effort to fund as much as $100 million in SunPower commercial-scale solar photovoltaic systems. Under the financing program, the partners say that SunPower will sign power purchase agreements (PPAs) with qualified customers, and the bank will finance the PV systems, which will be designed, built, operated, and maintained by the solar company.

In a multi-year collaboration agreement, SunPower Corp. has committed to working with Jabil Circuit, Inc. on the manufacture of solar panels. Jabil will begin manufacturing solar panels in Mexico for North America’s solar market in the second half of 2009.

Certified Steel, Nexus Properties, and SunPower have agreed to build a 1.2-MW solar power system at Certified's facility in Hamilton, NJ. The system, which should be completed in July, will be the largest installation financed by Public Service Enterprise's (PSE&G) solar loan program so far.

SunPower would seem to have been hit by the ‘perfect storm,’ judging by its recent release of quarterly financial results. The company cited the impact of the harsh winter in Germany, the collapse of the Spanish market, by far its biggest revenue generator in 2008 (74%), and continued constraints of project finance and overall tight credit environment.

Exelon and SunPower are joining forces on what is being called the largest solar power plant in an urban setting in the United States. The 10-MW PV installation, scheduled for completion by year's end, will be built on a former industrial site on Chicago's South Side.

Alamosa County in south Colorado is the planned location of what will be the second-largest high-efficiency solar PV power plant in North America, once SunPower and Xcel Energy construct their new 17MW solar power plant. The companies have signed up for the construction of a 17MW AC photovoltaic solar power plant that will utilise SunPower’s Tracker systems.

Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA), a municipal water agency, and SunPower Corp. have announced the completion of a solar power installation totalling 3.5MW over four locations. The installations are located at four IEUA facilities in Chino, Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga, California. The installations, one of which features a 1MW SunPower T20 Tracker system, are expected to save the IEUA approximately $500,000 per annum in energy costs.

Five JCPenney stores in New Jersey now benefit from 2 MW worth of solar power systems featuring SunPower modules installed by the PV company and owned and operated by Integrys Energy Services. The initiative is part of the retailer's efforts to deploy 3.7 MW of solar arrays at nine of its stores in New Jersey and California.

SunPower teamed up with the Rancho California Water District (RCWD) for the development and construction of a 1.1-MW solar power system at the district's water treatment facility in Murrieta, which has now reached completion.

Solar cell, panel, and system manufacturer SunPower has signed a deal with Sunshire, a subsidiary of Api Nova Energia, to design and build a 2.2-MW solar PV power plant in Tolentino, Italy--the first such agreement to be announced on behalf of the company's Italian subsidiary, SunPower Italia.

SunPower Corp. has completed construction of its 350kW solar power installation on the Crowne Plaza Hotel rooftop in Alice Springs, Australia, the largest roof-mounted solar power system on the continent. Invest North Pty Ltd. is the owner of the project.

SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq: SPWRA, SPWRB) released figures for Q4 2008 and provided cautious guidance for 2009. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $401 million, 56% of which was from the Components and the remaining 44% from the full System divisions.

Key takeaways from the SunPower figures include: fourth quarter revenue of $401 million, up 79% year-on-year; strong liquidity with over $436 million in cash and investments; expectation of fiscal year 2009 revenue of $1.6 billion to $2.0 billion; two multi-year agreements with European integrators totalling 230MW; addition of more than 350 residential and small commercial dealers worldwide in 2008 ...

Situated in south Lana'i, the recently completed La Ola 1.2MW solar farm is anticipated to provide close to 30% of the island’s peak energy needs. The 10-acre site, completed by Castle & Cooke Hawaii and SunPower Corporation, has been installed with a single-axis SunPower Tracker system, power generated by which will be purchased by Maui Electric Company (MECO).

SunPower Corporation has been appointed to construct a 505kW ground-mounted solar tracking system in two locations in Western Australia. Commissioned by government-owned Horizon Power, SunPower will install its solar tracking technology as well as its solar panels on the two sites in Marble Bar and Nullagine, in the east Pilbara region. Construction is expected to be completed by September 2009. SunPower’s foray into the Australian market was instigated with the purchase of Solar Sales Pty., Ltd. earlier this year.

SunPower Corporation has secured a customer contract with German solar power plant integrator City Solar Kraftwerke AG, which includes at least 100MW of its T10 Solar Roof Tile for commercial rooftop installations, and the) T0 Tracker and T20 Tracker for utility-scale, ground mounted systems as part of a three-year deal.

SunPower has now completed construction of more than 165MW of Spanish solar power plants with the completion of its latest project, an 18MW solar plant in Badajoz, Spain at the Olivenza Solar Power Plant. The power plant also used SunPower’s T20 Tracker solar tracking system, which has added to the project exceeding performance expectations, the company said.

SunPower Corporation has signed a module supply contract with Italian solar plant integrator Ecoware, S.p.A. SunPower will provide Ecoware with at least 130MW over a four-year period. Modules will start to be supplied to Ecoware in the first quarter of 2009.

SAN DIEGO--As blustery Santa Ana winds kicked up on a blue-sky Southern California day, officials from Hewlett-Packard, SunPower, GE Energy Financial Services, and local and state government dedicated a new 1.1-MW solar photovoltaic rooftop power system today at HP's imaging and printing R&D facility in Rancho Bernardo.

The California Academy of Sciences (Academy) in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California is to reopen this weekend following a closure for establishment of the new facility. An interesting aspect of this new construct is the ‘Living Roof’, an architecturally designed display roof that features 60,000 SunPower solar cells incorporated in 720 custom-built glass panels.

The largest single-roof solar power installation in North America reached completion today at Toyota's North America Parts Center California (NAPCC) in Ontario, California. The 2.3MW project was carried out by SunPower Corporation, and will begin operating in early October.

Sunnyvale, California is the location of the U.S.’s first corporate campus-based solar power system, where Applied Materials has had installed two SunPower technology-based facilities totalling 2.1MW. The two systems comprise a 950KW SunPower PowerGuard installation and a 1.2MW SunPower Tracker installation. SunPower in turn uses Applied Materials’ Baccini Technology in its cell manufacturing process.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company today announced it has entered into two utility-scale, photovoltaic (PV) solar power contracts for a total of 800 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy. This significant commitment to photovoltaic technology will deliver cumulatively 1.65 billion kilowatt-hours of renewable energy annually.

A former distributor and large-scale installer of photovoltaic modules in Australia has been acquired by SunPower Corporation as part of the PV manufacturer’s evolving direct sales business model. For an undisclosed sum, Solar Sales Pty. Ltd. will become a unit of the Silicon Valley-based company.

Florida Power & Light Company has selected SunPower Corporation to build the largest solar photovoltaic power plant in the United States at a location at DeSoto County, and a second plant at the Kennedy Space Center. The DeSoto County plant will have a 25MW capacity and is expected to be completed in 2009, while the 10MW plant is scheduled for completion in 2010.

SunPower plans to be the first silicon wafer-based photovoltaic producer to build and ramp a single 1GW facility with the announcement that it will start construction of Fab 3 in Malaysia later in 2008. The two-phase capacity expansion will see the first phase come on-stream in 2010 with 14 solar cell production lines with a nameplate capacity of 40 megawatts each. Phase two will see Fab 3 top 1GW in annual capacity, according to SunPower.

SunPower Corporation has said that its Gen 3 solar cell technology that is currently under development has reached cell efficiencies of 23.4 percent using standard five-inch wafers. SunPower claims that this is a new world record for a large area solar cell. "This is a step function increase from our 22 percent efficient Gen 2 technology, which has been in mass production since last year," said Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower Corp. "Credit for this achievement goes to our world- class research and development team led by Dick Swanson and Bill Mulligan, as well as to our talented engineering group."

Accompanying the news that SunPower is increasing solar cell capacity by 150 percent this year was the mention in its first-quarter financial results that it expects to meet its goal of 30 percent gross margins by the end of 2008 on the back of lower polysilicon prices, higher cell efficiency and thinner wafers.

In announcing financial results for the first quarter of 2008, SunPower Corporation stated that it would be increasing solar cell capacity by 150 percent in 2008, compared to capacity levels in 2007. The company also said that nearly half of its cell production was its ‘Gen2’ solar cell technology that has a minimum conversion efficiency of 22 percent. “Our proprietary technology delivers the highest output per unit area of any commercially available solar system and we intend to leverage this technology by aggressively expanding our solar cell production by more than 150 percent in 2008 compared to 2007,” commented Tom Werner, SunPower's CEO, in a financial statement.

SunPower Corporation has signed a multi-year polysilicon supply agreement with Jupiter Corp. that starts in 2010, continues through 2016 and equates to more than 3 gigawatts of solar cell production.

On posting a 227.6 percent year-on-year revenue growth with sales topping $774.8 million for 2007, SunPower Corporation has set its sights on doubling solar cell manufacturing capacity from 214 megawatts at the end of 2007 to 414 megawatts at the end of 2008. A key reason for the ability to expand production is due to SunPower’s belief that silicon feedstock supply constraints will ease and support lower prices through the supply chain.

SunPower Corporation has secured a large polysilicon supply beginning in 2012 from a new polysilicon plant being located in Saudi Arabia. Two signed agreements will support in aggregate 2,500 megawatts of solar cell production, the company said.

SunPower Corporation has signed a five-year agreement with Jiawei SolarChina Co., Ltd. (Jiawei) to secure a supply of monocrystalline silicon ingots and silicon wafers, beginning in 2008. The deal is expected to enable SunPower to produce the equivalent of 900MW during the agreement period.

SunPower Corporation has said that its joint venture polysilicon ingot pulling plant in DaeJeon City, Korea will be officially opened on November 28th. Woongjin Energy Corp operates the new 46,200-square-meter plant with DC Chemical, Korea's largest chemical company, supplying a new source of polysilicon.

SunPower has said that it expects to have sufficient silicon to generate 250 megawatts or more of solar cell production in 2008 due to its use of a portfolio strategy that combines polysilicon, ingot and wafer procurement from a variety of suppliers under a variety of contract terms and durations.

SunPower has said that it has entered into long-term supply contracts with new solar entrant NorSun AS, which will see SunPower purchase silicon in ingot and potentially wafer form to the tune of up to two gigawatts of solar cell production. In return, NorSun will buy polysilicon from SunPower at fixed annual volumes and prices. NorSun will provide SunPower cash advance payments for the polysilicon under this agreement.

Julie Blunden, Vice President, Public Policy and Corporate Communications at SunPower Corporation discusses with PV-Tech its recent project success in Italy and plans to establish module manufacturing in the U.S. and Europe in the near-future. Blunden also goes on to highlight the SunPower’s foundation program and planned cell efficiency program that will see the company reach 23% cell conversion rates.