First Solar and Solar Chile, a subsidiary of Fundación Chile, have agreed to a strategic alliance that will see the companies work together to co-develop solar projects in Chile. First Solar has agreed to provide its PV modules, engineering and procurement services for the projects, which are subject to the execution of definitive project agreements.
Natcore Technology and MX Holding advised that they had mutually signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture for the research and development of efficiency and cost in the solar industry. The R&D work will incorporate Natcore’s liquid phase deposition (LPD) technology combined with work by Dr. Daniele Margadona, CTO of the MX Group.
UK based Foresight Group has signed a joint venture agreement with Quercus Renewable Energy Fund, a division of the Luxembourg-based Quercus Asset Selection, for the expansion of its investments in the Italian solar PV market. Quercus bought a 50% stake in Foresight’s Luxembourg holding Foresight Lux Co 2, which controls 40% of ForVEI, a company that was established by investors with help from Foresight, who were looking to buy interests in Italian PV plants.
SunEdison and KGAL recently finalized an agreement that sees KGAL buying 33MW of solar PV systems from SunEdison, which are located in Italy and Spain. Financial and specific project details were not released, but the recent acquisition comes after KGAL completed a 20MW purchase from SunEdison in Q2 2011.
Array Technologies has shipped its first solar tracking system for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD) 50MW PV installation in south Sacramento County, California. The utility-scale project is being developed by Recurrent Energy with Swinerton Renewable Energy acting as the EPC for the installation.
Following the resignation of Greg Ye and Dafeng Shi from its board of directors, Daqo New Energy advised that it had selected Mingsong Liang and Shuming Zhao as the new independent directors for the company board. Liang is a co-managing partner of investment banking firm CLA Partners in China. He received his PhD degree in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a JD degree from New York University. Liang additionally serves on the audit committee for Daqo’s board.
Renewvia Energy advised that it had commissioned its 1.26MW solar system at the Northport Industrial Centre in New Jersey. Working with Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) and two of Renewvia’s partners, , the solar project has brought PSE&G’s Solar Loan program over the US$100 million mark for solar financing in New Jersey.
Fronius International and Obvius Holdings have formed a strategic partnership for the development of a monitoring solution that provides “plug-and-play integration.” Fronius’ IG Plus and CL inverters are now supported by Obvius’ AcquiSuite, AcquiSuite EMB and AcquiLite EMB.
As of October 1, Solarwatt had extended the product warranty for all of its solar modules to 10 years. The company stated that for the 10-year period it would guarantee all of its delivered modules to be free of material and processing defects that would affect their operation.
Enecsys advised that it has partnered with Ember for the company’s wireless ZigBee communications, which will be incorporated into Enecsys microinverters so that households and business can better monitor and improve their systems’ performance. The ZigBee system-on-chip (SoC) and ZigBee PRO software have been added to Enecsys’ SMI microinverter series and should allow for real-time and historical data to be populated for its users.
