Roger Welser has joined Magnolia Solar as its chief technology officer. He will be responsible for leading the development of next-generation high-performance solar cells using advanced nanostructured materials at the Woburn, MA-based company.
Xunlight has delivered a shipment of its flexible triple-junction thin-silicon photovoltaic modules to the University of Toledo. The modules will be part of a 10KW array to be installed at the university's Scott Park Campus of Energy and Innovation (SPCEI). The company said this is the first shipment of modules to be manufactured on its new 25MW roll-to-roll production line.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved two 25-year power purchase agreements between Pacific Gas and Electric and BrightSource Energy for electricity generated at a pair of concentrating solar-thermal power stations scheduled to be built in the deserts of Southern California. The initial project, a 110MW power plant in Ivanpah Solar Power Complex, will be located on six square miles of land about 50 miles northwest of Needles in the Mojave Desert and is slated to begin operations by July 2012. A second, 200MW installation is scheduled to start operating a year later at the site.
In a ground-breaking ceremony held Aug. 19, RGE Energy started construction of a 45MWp solar power plant, equipped with BP Solar modules, on 116 undeveloped hectares at the site of a former military airfield in Köthen, Saxony-Anhalt. When completed, the developers say that project will be the largest solar power plant in the German state and the world´s largest to be outfitted with string inverters.
First Solar's U.S. project pipeline now tops the 1GW mark, after the thin-film photovoltaics company and utility Southern California Edison signed deals that will lead to the construction of two large-scale solar power projects in Southern California. The installations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties will have a combined generation capacity of 550MW (AC) of solar electricity, or about 1.2 billion KW-hours, enough to provide power to approximately 170,000 homes, according to SCE.
Trina Solar saw its second-quarter revenues increase over the previous quarter although sales numbers were down from the same period in 2008, while net income went back into the black compared to the first quarter. The Chinese integrated photovoltaics manufacturer shipped nearly 31% more modules in the quarter versus the preceding three months. The company also said it expects to reach nearly 600MW in PV cell and module production capacity by the end of this year.
Solar industry veteran PM Pai has joined global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) as a venture partner. Pai, who has more than 30 years of manufacturing and mass production expertise spanning several industries, will work with NEA's energy technology team. He is already on the boards of two of the VC's portfolio companies, silicon solar-cell manufacturer Suniva and Deeya Energy, an advanced energy storage developer.
Two organic photovoltaics development companies have taken steps forward on the road to commercialization. Ten Plextronics' test modules have been deployed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for outdoor monitoring and performance testing--the first set of OPV modules under sun at NREL--while Solarmer Energy has won a $450,000 contract from the FlexTech Alliance to design and synthesize high-efficiency donor polymer materials for OPV uses.
Shell plans to focus on biofuels and exit the solar photovoltaics business, selling its 50% share of thin-film PV company Avancis to joint-venture partner, Saint-Gobain. The German firm produces copper-indium-selenide (CIS) modules at its 20MW plant, which came online last year. Saint-Gobain said that it will "accelerate the industrial development of Avancis." Two additional production lines are being ramped up at the manufacturing site in Torgau, Saxony.
DayStar Technologies, a copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide thin-film PV developer based in Santa Clara, CA, is running out of money. Although the company posted a smaller net loss in its just-announced second-quarter results than it experienced in the first quarter and the value of its net property and equipment has risen to $50 million because of increased investment during the period, its cash and cash equivalents have dwindled to $1.3 million. As a result of its financial woes, DayStar says it will need "substantial funds in the near term" to continue operations, ramp its first production line, and begin shipping products, and a failure to raise such monies may result in the company declaring bankruptcy and possibly shutting down part or all of its operations.
