Enfinity has begun development on three solar PV projects in California and also announced that work is underway on its 36MWp Stardale installation in East Hawkesbury, Ontario. The California projects include solar installations for the City of Parlier, Greenfield Union School District (GUSD) and the Muroc Joint Unified School District (MJUSD). The three projects combined will have a yearly energy generation of 4 million kWh and over 80 million kWh throughout the next twenty years. Enfinity will supply the financing and development services for all the California projects.
Steed Technology recently completed the full acquisition of outstanding stock for Applied Technology Specialists (ATSI). Steed has confirmed that manufacturing of all products will remain in Northern California, while research and development will continue in Oklahoma. Both companies will now operate under the Steed name.
Princeton Power Systems (PPS) has opened its new Princeton, New Jersey facility, which will manufacture inverters and energy storage systems for the alternative energy divisions. In addition to housing PPS’s military-qualified variable speed drive product, the 10,000 square foot facility contains floors that are qualified for assembling 90” inverter cabinets. The new facility boasts various labs, including an inverter test lab, a printed circuit board lab and a variable speed drive test and assembly lab.
Clean Power Research has released its newly-improved, free, high-resolution solar resource data set, which envelops the entire state of California as part of its California Solar Initiative (CSI) grant. The SolarAnywhere Enhanced Resolution (ER) improves on SolarAnywhere, both of which are web-based solar irradiance data services. The SolarAnywhere ER makes available spatial resolution of 1km x 1km and temporal resolution, or frequency, of 30 minutes.
The Murfreesboro Solar Project has not broken ground yet, but that has not stopped GreenCo Solutions and the North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation (NCEMC) from announcing their intent to buy renewable energy certificates (REC) and electricity, respectively, from the solar project that Duke Energy acquired from SunPower in December 2010.
Acuity Technology Management completed an independent evaluation on EnviroMission’s Australian Solar Tower technology, valuing it at AUDS$60,000,000. The valuation includes the intellectual property, development rights and overall commerciality of the technology.
Pure Power Advisors has formed a new tax-equity fund known as the California Solar FIT Fund. The US$100 million tax-equity investment fund is geared towards ground-mounted solar projects throughout California and will supply funding for construction, completion, purchase and operation for qualified projects by means of a structured acquisition of projects from developers. The project acquisitions will use a financing structure influenced by Section 1603 Treasury grants or Section 48 energy tax credits.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has revealed two new initiatives that promote tribal energy development and a better partnership between the DOE and tribal nations. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu advised that up to US$10 million will become available this year for the DOE’s Tribal Energy Program, which will go towards the evaluation, development and deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects on tribal lands.
Martifer Solar has entered into a binding agreement with Sunflower for the engineering, procurement, construction, operation and maintenance for 13MW of PV plants throughout the Piedmont regions of Italy. Martifer and Sunflower have previously worked together on two recently completed 2.1MW PV plants in the Province of Alessandria.
Constellation Energy is in the process of developing two rooftop solar installations in Maryland, both funded partially by grants through the Maryland Energy Administration’s Project Sunburst initiative. The first installation is a 750kW project at Anne Arundel County’s Combined Support Services Complex in Millersville. The roof-mounted system will have around 3,060 crystalline PV solar panels and produce around 900,000kWh of electricity every year.
