The T-Solar Group, which has 230MW of solar projects under construction in Spain, Italy, India and Peru, advised that it is continuing its international development with the addition of 61MW of solar power in Peru and India. The company recently brought its 5MW PV power plant in India online, which uses thin-film amorphous silicon panels that were fabricated at its Galicia, Spain factory.
As of October 1, IBC Solar’s MonoSol and PolySol series solar modules have been outfitted with a 10-year product warranty, which supports the modules 25-year linear power warranty. The new 10-year warranty covers the IBC MonoSol and IBC PolySol series of modules if they show any defects that can be attributed to their manufacturing or materials faults and therefore effect the module’s functionality.
BioSolar advised that its BioBacksheet has been granted provisional relative thermal index (RTI) recognition by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). The company first received UL materials certification for its technology in February and since that time has seen the UL conduct long-term thermal stability testing on the BioBacksheet.
Bisol and Avdira Solar have entered a contract, which will see Avdira Solar distributing 100MW of Bisol’s solar PV modules over the next three years. Avdira will commence with the delivery of its first 25MW throughout 2012. Both companies advised that the agreement was a way for them to each have a better foothold in the Greek solar market.
Solon will be building a 10MW solar PV plant near Kingman, Arizona for UniSource Energy Services (UES), which, under a 20-year PPA, will allow the utility to provide renewable power to its customers without the upfront cost of the system installation. The 10MW array will accompany the 1.22MW UES-owned solar array that Solon developed near Kingman’s La Senita Elementary School.
Earlier this year, Veeco announced its impending exit from the CIGS thin-film PV business and with its announcement advised of its intentions to transfer its R&D facility and pilot line in New York to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at the University of Albany. Three months after the initial declaration, Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, Senior VP and CEO of CNSE, and Congressman Chris Gibson, came together to formally launch CNSE’s new Solar Energy Development Center in Halfmoon, New York, which has taken over the facility once occupied by Veeco.
SiOnyx has advised that its patented ultrafast laser texturing technology, Black Silicon, has reached 0.3%, absolute, efficiency growth over typical industry baseline solar cells. The company’s 156mm multicrystalline silicon cells, which are manufactured under a partnership with ISC Konstanz, is said to have attained average absolute efficiencies over 17%.
Sequel Power, a division of Tegal, has opened offices in South America for the development of large-scale solar utility projects in the region. The offices in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile will serve the company’s customers and partners in South America and are overseen by Price Alexander von Sachsen, Sequel’s chairman of South America, the Middle East and Africa. The company currently has large-scale PV solar utilities projects underway in Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.
SunPower and California’s San Ramon Valley Unified School District celebrated the 3.3MW of solar projects installed across five school sites for the San Ramon school district. It is estimated that the five projects will produce over two-thirds of school’s energy needs over the system’s lifetime. California High School, Dougherty Valley High School, Monte Vista High School, San Ramon Valley High School and Diablo Vista Middle School all saw the solar installations completed earlier this month.
After SolarWorld filed a petition with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and the Department of Commerce (DOC) to stop what it considered unfair trade practices by China, Suntech Power Holdings has issued a response.
