The governor of the state of Kaduna in Nigeria, Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Helios Energy, a Germany energy company, for a 30MW solar power project. Dr. Jeremy Gaines, the coordinator of the Nigerian-German Energy Partnership, signed on behalf of the German firm.
8minutenergy Renewables, a developer of utility-scale solar PV projects, has received conditional use permits (CUP) for three of its large-scale PV projects from the Imperial County Board of Supervisors. The projects have a total capacity of 275MW and will be built in the Imperial Valley, California, US, in partnership with Gestamp Solar.
GCL-Poly Energy Holdings has been given the green light to begin preparing for the construction of a 310MWground-mounted PV system and a 30MW rooftop solar project in Dantong, Shanxi province, China, after it received approval from the National Energy Beruau.
Thirty-one of Power-One’s Aurora PVI-12.5-Tl-FS inverters have been delivered for use at a new PV test facility at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands. The 400kW installation was provided by Solartechno, in cooperation with The Grounds, a platform for innovative applications for sustainable airports.
Canadian Solar advised that the sale of its Canadian Solar 1 installation has been completed with the utility-scale power plant sold to Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners for US$48.4 million. Canadian Solar was the developer, EPC and construction financier for the project, which is built near the town of Napanee. The installation is connected to the grid and uses nearly 50,000 of the company’s CS6M modules.
Higher module shipments on the back of increasing focus on expanding its solar module business and building sales channels supported ReneSola producing better than expected second-quarter 2012 financial results. The company posted US$233 million in sales, up 10.2% from US$211.5 million in the prior quarter.
Updated: After much media speculation that South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group had been in negotiations to acquire PV manufacturer Q-Cells, a deal has been struck according to a brief statement issued late Sunday evening. However, the deal still requires the approval of creditors, which the insolvency administrator Henning Schorisch said would be sought at a meeting on August 29.
SolarWorld noted that its large-scale system business expansion has been successful thus far with the company pointing to 33MW of total power being connected to the grid in Germany during Q2 2012. The company connected five solar farms in commercial and industrial areas in the Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The farms will supply over 30 million kWh of power per year.
On the back of a two-day blackout in India which caused tragedy, chaos and loss of face at the end of July, Bloomberg has revealed that US solar giant First Solar is drawing out plans to develop solar farms in India as repeated power outages spur on demand for solar power.
