Hanwha SolarOne has officially launched its new North American unit, Hanwha SolarEnergy America (HSEA), which will serve customers in the utility and commercial sectors. The company noted that its new North American arm completes the integration of Solar Monkey, a California developer Hanwha SolarOne bought with an initial stake in January 2011. HSEA has developed a project pipeline of 1GW.
The US Export-Import bank signed a declaration of intent (DOI) with the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa. The DOI aims to progress the South African government’s Integrated Resource Plan and the South African Renewable Initiative. The agreement will see the Ex-Im bank provide financing up to US$2 billion worth of US technologies, products and services to South Africa’s energy sector, with a focus on clean-energy development.
The US residential solar lease market remains highly competitive with a new deal struck by SunPower to access US$325 million in new finance from 2-major investment banks, Citi and Credit Suisse. The new financing comes soon after major competitors in the third party leasing market, SunCity and Sunrun received significant new funding from Credit Suisse to the tune of a combined US$300 million in late July, 2012.
Installation of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (Ivanpah SEGS) worth US$2.2 billion is 50% complete, according to an announcement by NRG Energy, Google, BrightSource Energy and construction partner Bechtel.
Tough times across Sharp Corporation’s electronics sectors filtered down into its solar manufacturing arm in its first quarter sales for the current financial year. Overall, Sharp posted quarterly losses of ¥138.4 billion (US$1.76 billion) on net sales of ¥458.6 billion. Sales within its solar cells segment were down 18.2%, compared to the same period in the previous year at ¥41.9 billion (US$534 million), generating an operating loss of ¥6.9 billion (US$57.5 million).
Suntech Power Holdings revealed that in July 2012 it had achieved the milestone of delivering more than 1GW of solar panels to customers in North and South America. The company noted that it is one of the first global solar companies with a 1GW delivery record for the region. Worldwide, Suntech has shipped more than 7GW of its solar panels to over 1,000 customers in more than 80 countries.
Winaico, part of Win Win Precision Technology, announced that its WSP PV modules had passed potential-induced degradation (PID) testing conducted by TÜV Rheinland. As pointed out by PV-Tech, “PID is regarded as a key problem for monocrystalline cells and modules as it reduces the high-level performance of the module".
Conergy has successfully completed the installation of its 1.8MW solar project at Aqua Pennsylvania’s Pickering water treatment facility. The Aqua Pickering Solar Farm produces 2.3kWh of peak-time energy per year and is expected to generate nearly 50,0000MWh of solar electricity over its lifetime.
CSA International has confirmed that Canadian Solar modules are able to receive 1000V of maximum system voltage under the newly issued CSA1000V certification. CSA International tests products for compliance to national and international standards with its certification marks ensuring the product complies with standards written or administered by the ANSI, UL, CSA, NSF and other institutions.
It appears the waivered salary of 2011 from Frank Asbeck, CEO for SolarWorld, was not wasted. The company has invested a total of US$27million to upgrade and replace several factory systems at its Hillsboro, Oregan, US plant. This particular facility was considered to be one of the ‘last plants standing’ in September 2011 because production lines were shuttered in Germany and throughout the US. The Hillsboro location also houses a demonstration park to debut technological advances, it hopes will boost the power output of its high-performance solar panels. The new initiatives push SolarWorld’s total capital investment in Hillsboro to more than US$600 million.
