Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has signed a contract with El Dorado Energy, a subsidiary of Sempra Generation, to purchase 48MW of solar photovoltaic power produced at the Copper Mountain Solar facility in Nevada. The deal, which is subject to approval by the California Public Utilities Commission, is the utility’s second contract for renewable energy from Sempra Generation, following the late 2008 agreement to supply 10MW of PV power from the El Dorado Energy solar plant.
TÜV Rheinland PTL has won a photovoltaic module testing and analysis contract with the U.S. Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories. The agreement makes TÜV Rheinland an industry partner of Sandia, allowing the company to learn and share the labs' PV testing and analysis expertise.
In an operational update, Timminco said it produced 243 metric tons of solar-grade or upgraded metallurgical silicon (UMSi) from three purification lines out of an available seven lines. The company shipped 34 metric tons in the quarter, at an average selling price of $39 per kg. As a result of continuing economic challenges, the AMG subsidary will reduce production to one line and temporarily lay off up to 60 workers.
Allora Minerals has been busy, acquiring the remaining assets of OptiSolar, receiving preliminary approval to garner millions of Euro in grants for German projects, and getting shareholder approval to change its name to that of another company whose assets it's buying, EPOD Solar (ESI). The OptiSolar deal will bring the once-promising thin-film PV company's intellectual property and its manufacturing and R&D facilities in Northern California into ESI's portfolio.
Thin-film PV developer Ascent Solar Technologies has named former Applied Materials executive Farhad Moghadam as the company's new president and CEO, effective August 3. The announcement culminates a nine-month executive search conducted by the flexible CIGS module company.
Axio Power has agreed to buy the solar assets of BQ Energy, a New York-based developer of utility-scale renewable energy projects located on industrial, military, and brownfield sites. The acquisition includes BQ Energy’s solar assets in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and California.
DuPont and the U.S. Department of Energy will collaborate in a $9 million solar research program to develop ultrathin moisure-barrier material solutions for flexible thin-film photovoltaics. Some $3 million of the funding for the three-year effort comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, with DuPont contributing the remaining $6 million.
Solar Holding Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Roth & Rau, is buying 100% of the shares of Romaric Corp., a manufacturing execution systems company based in Salt Lake City. In addition to boosting its presence in the U.S. market, Roth & Rau said it hopes to use Romaric's extensive experience in the field of software automation for semiconductor and other highly standardized manufacturing companies to extend its own products and services offering to its customers in the solar photovoltaic sector.
SPG Holdings has closed a $13 million equity financing through the Global Environment Fund and Robeco. SPG Holdings includes systems integrator SPG Solar and solar product designer/manufacturer Thompson Technologies Industries.
One of Trina Solar's key photovoltaic module glass suppliers, Beijing Hua Mei Dazheng Technology, has signed an investment agreement to site a production facility in the Changzhou Trina Photovoltaic Industrial Park. The deal was signed with the Changzhou National High Tech District to build a glass factory adjacent to Trina Solar's manufacturing campus.
