Balance of System designer and manufacturer Bentek Solar has signed a 25MW supply agreement with Borrego Solar. The contract will see Bentek Solar supply a range of disconnecting combiners, re-combiners and disconnect safety systems to be used on Borrego Solar’s commercial and utility scale projects.
Soitec and Schneider Electric have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen) to develop concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) technology in the North African country.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has offered a conditional loan guarantee totalling US$1.2 billion to help build a 280MW Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant in southern California. If confirmed, the DOE guarantee will help fund the construction and start-up of Abengoa’s Mojave Solar Project (MSP), which is to be located around 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County.
SPI Solar and LDK Solar, its majority shareholder, have signed an agreement to become the primary engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and operations and maintenance (O&M) service provider for KDC Solar’s project pipeline in New Jersey and New York. The three-year contract will see the two firms collaborate on a number of projects, which could be as little as 150MW or as much as 300MW.
National Grid has given a US$225,000 Renewable Energy and Economic Development grant to the University of Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) to help fund a photovoltaic control and monitoring centre (PVCMC). The monitoring centre, located in the Albany NanoTech Complex, will facilitate the collection of real-time research data to help with the installation of roof-mounted PV systems.
Syncarpha Capital has chosen Siemens Energy to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for its new 3MW solar plant in Eastampton, New Jersey. Construction work on the ground-based system is set to begin shortly and grid connection is pencilled in for September.
South Korea’s biggest chemicals manufacturer, LG Chem, is planning to spend ? 491 billion (US$455 million) on its first polysilicon plant as it looks to take its first step into the PV industry. The facility, located in Yeosu in southwest Korea, will have the capacity to produce 5,000 metric tonnes of polysilicon per year. LG Chem’s board approved the construction plan on Thursday and it has penciled in a completion date of late 2013.
GT Solar International has appointed John Granara as its new vice of president finance, chief accounting officer and corporate controller. Granara succeeds Richard Johnson, who resigned last week to pursue other interests, and will start the role immediately.
Switzerland looks set to become the latest country to abolish its nuclear energy programme after its Government announced last week that it would be nuclear free by 2034. The news is a boon to solar, which will look to fill the void left by an industry that currently accounts for 39.9% of the land-locked country’s electricity production.
