Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

With the second large module order announcement in a week, Kyocera has announced that it will ship approximately 190,000 solar modules for two large-scale solar plants in Dulcinea in Cuenca and Don Quijote in Ciudad Real – both in the Castile-La Mancha region of central Spain. The plants cover an area of 338,581m² and have an output of approximately 39.3MW.

Spanish car manufacturer SEAT will integrate the roof of its Martorell site in Spain with photovoltaic solar panels within the framework of its project 'SEAT Al Sol'. This is the company's environmental conservation project aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The SEAT Al Sol project has been developed in partnership with GA-Solar to decentralize the generation of electric energy, this means that the solar PV energy will be both produced and consumed on-site. BIPV technology will be installed on the workshops and a factory covering a total area of 320,000m². The installation will involve 10MW of PV panels generating more than 13 million kW/h of solar electricity annually.

The City of Communications business park project in Madrid, Spain was born at the concept design stage back in 2002. Global Architectural association, HOK International was responsible for the master plan and urban design of the building. Once this stage was complete, local architect Rafael de La-Hoz Castanys took over for the architectural delivery of this project. At the time of completion in 2008, the building had the largest horizontal surface for collecting solar energy in Europe. The complete structure has over 16,600 photovoltaic solar panels that run the length of the entire office complex on the building rooftops.

The Spanish Minister of Industry, Miguel Sebastián, has announced that the Andasol 3 and Ibersol power plant projects, developed by Solar Millennium, will obtain the pre-registration required to receive the Spanish feed-in tariff. The ministerial order will be ratified by the Cabinet on Friday 13th.

GT Solar International has received final acceptance for the design, installation and commissioning of its turnkey wafer fabrication line in Spain. The Leon-based production line is intended for DC Wafers and will include GT Solar's GT-DSS450 ingot growth technology, coupled with advanced wafering systems, and automated in-line inspection tools.

Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) has been selected by Recurrent Energy to deliver 4.8MWp of solar generating systems for eight separate building rooftops at ProLogis Park Sant Boi in Barcelona and ProLogis Park Alcala in Madrid, Spain. ECD will be supplying the project with Uni-Solar PV laminates, part of its building integrated and commercial rooftop line. The company will also provide development resources through its subsidiary, Solar Integrated.

Sunstroom Energy, a UK-based energy company, intends to build a 50MW Thermostroom 1 solar thermal plant, at Saucedilla, Caceres, in the Extremadura province of Spain, according to The Business News.

Solar Millennium AG sold 25% stakes from the Andasol 1 and 2 solar plants to ACS/Cobra Group, a Spanish company with a history of buying from Solar Millennium. The sale of the stakes improves Solar Millennium AG’s liquidity situation even further and added an earnings effect of €12 million.

Feed-in tariff (FiT) policies are now implemented in more than 40 countries around the world and are cited as the primary reason for the success of the German and Spanish renewable energy markets. As a result of that success, FiT policy proposals are starting to crop up in several other areas around the world including a number of US states.

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association has said on the eve of the EU PVSEC Conference and Exposition, being held in Valencia, Spain this week that it supports ASIF and APPA, the Spanish photovoltaic and renewable energy associations recommended amendments to proposed 300MW cap on PV installations after the current decree expires at the end of September, 2008.