Ben Willis

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is to provide US$53 million to fund 40 R&D projects aimed at slashing the cost of solar.

US thin-film giant First Solar’s Macho Springs project in New Mexico has become the first PV plant to receive the system-level ‘Quality Tested’ certification from testing institute VDE and Fraunhofer ISE.

The US solar trade case continues to cast a shadow over the buoyant American PV market. Ben Willis spoke to the originators of the case, SolarWorld, at SPI 2014 to see if they stand by their actions.

The US has seen a surge of Chinese and Taiwanese PV imports as companies seek to secure low-cost product ahead of the imposition of trade duties.

Investment firm KKR has acquired a stake in the renewable energy arm of Spanish conglomerate Acciona ahead of plans to launch a yield co.

The board of Chinese PV manufacturer Hanergy has approved a change of name for the company.

TMEIC, the inverter manufacturing alliance between Toshiba and Mitsubishi, has become the latest growing Asian inverter supplier to enter the US market.

Chinese manufacturer JA Solar claims to have achieved a record 20% conversion efficiency in one of its multicrystalline PV cells.

Norway-headquartered REC Solar has unveiled a new 275W module aimed at residential and commercial rooftop installations, the ‘TwinPeak Series’.

Leading US PV installer SolarCity has broken ground on its new 1GW fab in New York State, where it will manufacture modules with Silevo, the West Coast start-up it acquired earlier this year.