News

Southern California Edison (SCE) has signed a power purchase agreement with First Solar for its 250MW (AC) Silver State South plant. First Solar’s ground-mounted system, which will be located on 2,500 acres of public land near Primm, Nevada, will start generating electricity in 2014 and be fully operational in May 2017.

German PV equipment manufacturer Centrotherm has won the bidding to develop a major new solar plant in Algeria. Despite reports to contrary, Centrotherm has yet to sign a contract with the Algerian Government for the new system, which will be located 30km east of the capital city, Algiers.

A select group of Q-Cells employees will be presented with certificates for solar cell production monitoring by the German Minister of Finance, Dr. Reiner Haseloff, today after attending a training seminar organised by IHK Bildungszentrum Halle-Dessau.

Yingli Green Energy's Americas unit has signed a new PV module supply agreement with Borrego Solar Systems. Under the terms of the deal, 20MW of Yingli Solar crystalline-silicon modules will be provided to the San Diego-based PV systems installer in 2011. Borrego plans to use the panels for commercial projects across the U.S.

Last year saw juwi Hellas establish itself as one of the key players in the Greek turnkey solar project sector by installing systems totalling nearly 10MW across the peninsula.

Campbell Soup has signed power purchase and land lease agreements with BNB Napoleon Solar to build a 9.8MW solar power generation system on 60 acres of the company’s largest plant in Napoleon, OH. Campbell will lease the land to BNB, which will own the system and be responsible for its financing, construction, operation, and maintenance.

San Diego Gas & Electric has entered into a 25-year contract with NRG Solar to buy 26MW of solar energy from a proposed facility in San Diego County, CA. The new project, said to be the largest solar PV site that the utility has signed for within its service area, will be located in Borrego Springs.

Every two years, student teams from universities around the world gather at the National Mall in Washington D.C. to design, build and operate solar powered houses that not only compete for awards, but educate the public on the properties of a solar powered house through the Solar Decathlon. However, this year, the Department of the Interior (DOI) has made a major change to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) competition by deciding to relocate the decathlon to an alternate site.

John McLane has accepted the president position with GCube Insurance Services, a worldwide insurance provider for the renewable energy arena. McLane was named one of the top five energy insurance brokers in the U.S. by Risk & Insurance Magazine in 2006 and will rely on his 30-year background in insurance and risk financing programs for utility scale renewable energy projects to guide him in his new position.

Building work on the largest privately-held PV system in Florida is close to completion as Sybac Solar adds the final touches to its 2MW array in Gainesville.