Nilima Choudhury

Contractor Würth Solar commissioned the Farsala solar power plant on December 2010. Since January 4, 2011, this open space system, built as a turn-key facility, has been supplying electricity to the Greek grid. It has now achieved its full load capacity of 5MW. The electricity output of the Farsala plant covers the annual energy requirements of more than 1,600 Greek households. Whilst, at the same time, about 3,700 tons of CO2 emissions are saved per year.

The Solar Gateway Project – a combined effort from full-service construction company Gilbane Co. and solar panel manufacturer SunPower Corp. – is underway to build a 1.1MW solar power system at California-based West Valley College campus. With SunPower's high-efficiency solar panels, the system will generate approximately one-third of West Valley College's electricity demand and save more than US$9 million.

Solar energy is fast becoming a ‘sunrise’ sector in India and it has started attracting considerable interest from financial investors as well as cross-border partnerships.

At Solar Power International 2011 in Dallas this week, the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) announced the results of the 2011 SEPA Solar Business Achievement Awards.

This past month has seen Conergy secure orders for various solar power plants totalling more than 5MW in the USA. Conergy has provided three different states with project development services, planning, financing, engineering, procurement, construction, permitting and operations and maintenance.

At the Solar Power International Expo this October 2011, technology pioneer OutBack Power Technologies will demonstrate their off-grid power conversion components. And Ameresco Solar, a leading energy efficiency and renewable energy company has reached an agreement to provide BP Solar International’s small area module (SAM) line of solar panels that range from 5 watts to 180 watts under the Ameresco Solar brand.

SunRun, a home installation solar company, and PV Solar, an authority on California solar market data, announced that third-party-owned solar has eclipsed cash purchase as the preferred way to go solar in California. Also known as leasing or solar power service, third-party-owned solar represented approximately 59% of California's home solar market in Q3 2011 and 51% of the market year to date.

Three schools in Arizona's Buckeye Union high school district are to be the recipients of a PV installation. REgeneration Finance, LLC, an experienced solar finance and development firm, has arranged the financing for an estimated 4.29MWp (DC) solar project.

Joint Forces for Solar (JF4S), a global synergy of stakeholders along the solar supply chain, has gained a new backer. pvXchange, who is an online business-to-business brokerage of PV modules and inverters, will be among the sponsors of JF4S’s fourth U.S. breakfast briefing and networking forum at Solar Power International in Dallas in October.

S-Energy, a Korea-based module manufacturer, increased its module capacity by 120MW to a total of 350MW in October 2011. The company claims this is the most modern solar module manufacturing line in Korea with stringers from Germany (Teamtechnik), laminators from Switzerland (3S) and automation made in Korea (Evertechno).