A CNET news story published yesterday outlined Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) major plans for investment in solar energy for several Californian communities. The announcement was made at the Clean Tech Investor Summit, which has been taking place over the past two days in Palm Springs, California. PG&E’s CEO Peter Darbee is cited as having said that the company’s planned investment would be “significant”, and on a par with Southern California Edison's solar program to spend $850 million over five years.
Somont has received an order for delivery of its “RAPID” automatic string soldering systems to the value of €14.5 million, the company has announced. The 3S Industries AG subsidiary will deliver the machines to REC’s new solar factory in Tuas, Singapore, where they will be installed at the site and will be instrumental in REC’s aim of reaching capacity of 740MW of wafers, 550MW of solar cells and 590MW of solar modules by 2012.
Mumbai-based Refex Energy has signed an MoU with the energy and petrochemicals State department of Gujarat approving its plans to construct a 50MW solar power plant in the region, according to a report in The Economic Times, India. The company intends to start work on the first phase of the 50MW capacity in 2009, with the remainder of the phases to be completed in stages.
Open Energy Corporation has decided to change its name to Applied Solar, Inc. The company’s name and strategy change arose from its decision to shift the company focus from a manufacturing model to a licensing model to better market its BIPV products. The name is intended to reflect the company’s move toward a new business model, which will focus more on commercial and residential solar technologies, while the recent signing of a manufacturing, distribution and marketing agreement with a Suntech affiliate should cement the company’s decision to concentrate on research and development.
Michael Sullivan, a former investor relations manager for Intel Corp., has taken up a role as Vice President of Investor Relations with Applied Materials, Inc. He brings more that 16 years of experience with Intel, including management roles in Corporate Media and Public Relations to Applied. The new role will see him hold responsibility for the company’s relationships with investors, financial analysts and the financial community. Mr. Sullivan has a B.A. degree from San Jose State University and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.
In a deal said to be worth more than $150 million, Perfectenergy International Ltd. has signed a one-year module sales agreement with Abidas AG. Perfectenergy will supply 50MW of monocrystalline solar modules to the German company over the four quarters of 2009, at a price that has been fixed until June 2009. The modules will be manufactured at Perfectenergy's 60MW factory in Shanghai, China.
An industry analyst specializing in the renewable energy and semiconductor materials sectors, Ming Yang’s addition to the JA Solar team will see him take up the post of vice president of business development and corporate communications. He will oversee investor and public relations, business development, strategic marketing and market assessment for the company.
Berlin-based pvXchange, the photovoltaic spot market trading company, has provided positive reports of its sales for 2008 and as a result has decided to open a public limited company. pvXchange international N.V., with offices in Maastricht, Netherlands, will be involved with all business dealings of the company, leaving the parent company (pvXchange GmbH) to continue operation of the international solar trading platform.
Applied Materials, Inc. has been awarded certification by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for its single and tandem junction PV modules. Standards 61646 and 61730 involve safety testing of PV modules under severe environmental conditions, and the stamp of approval for the products from the IEC will aid in shortening time-to-market for the modules as well as speeding up the certification process for Applied’s customers.
The Abu Dhabi-based Masdar initiative has announced its plans to construct a 10MW solar power plant in the Middle East area, which will be the first and largest grid-connected solar photovoltaic plant in the Middle East and North Africa region. The plant will consist of 50% crystalline modules and 50% thin-film modules, which, it was announced today, are to be supplied by First Solar. Construction on the Dh185 million (~$50M) project is underway and is scheduled for completion by the end of the second quarter of 2009. The PV plant will power the construction activities in Masdar City and the Masdar Institute...
