AlsoEnergy revealed that it is currently monitoring over 200 solar installations throughout the US and Canada. The installations are found on public schools, colleges and universities, with the company providing energy production monitoring data, along with educational kiosks at each location.
Armor Group, a French supplier of coated films for the thermal transfer printing industry, is stepping into the OPV solar cell manufacturing realm by investing €14 million (US$18 million) in a pilot OPV production line in La Chevrolière in western France, Les Echos revealed.
According to informed sources close to those involved, Jerry Stokes, president of Suntech Europe has agreed a settlement with senior management of Suntech Power Holdings to leave the company. Stokes joined the company in 2006. Suntech's newly appointed chief executive officer, David King recently set about restructuring senior management roles with the exit of Andrew Beebe, Suntech’s chief commercial officer and regional heads reporting directly to King.
Although heavily hyped as a low-cost alternative to conventional oil-based PV backsheet materials, start-up BioSolar said that it was to develop a new bio-based backsheet material that would aim to be of even lower cost in order to capture more customers. Back in March, 2011 the company had said it was supplying sample material for PV module manufacturers based in Asia for evaluation.
French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy and the Ministry of Productive Recovery has released a report detailing long-term operational recommendations and proposals for structural reforms to the renewables industry. The government will make a decision based on this report at a later unspecified date.
WAAREE Energies, an Indian PV manufacturer and project developer, has been on a roll in the past few months and has been awarded yet another turnkey EPC contract for a 5MW thin-film PV plant from Taxus Infrastructure & Power Projects Pvt. The location of the project has not been disclosed.
PV equipment specialist Despatch Industries is set to launch its new Safire firing furnace and accompanying dryer technology at EU PVSEC in Frankfurt, Germany next week. The company also noted that PV manufacturer, Nice Sun PV Co had completed high-volume production testing of the Safire furnace that demonstrated a 0.1% absolute improvement in overall efficiency on a baseline product and up to 0.13% on some product types.
In keeping with recent years, Taiwan-based solar cell manufacturer Neo Solar Power (NSP) is launching several new cells that follow a different path to high-efficiency, while claiming to be the low-cost option. Being showcased at EU PVSEC in Frankfurt next week is NSP’s polycrystalline Super18 solar cell and its mono-crystalline Black19+ with a maximum efficiency of 19.4%, all accomplished without the use of selective emitters or rear-side passivation technologies.
The board of directors for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US government’s development finance institution, recently gave its approval of providing up to US$250 million for OPIC’s first solar power project in South Africa.
Gloom pervaded the Spanish solar industry when minister of industry, energy and tourism José Manuel Soria’s 19% tax on renewables receiving a FiT was announced in July to end the tariff deficit of US$30 billion. However, the cabinet has now launched a draft umbrella tax of 6% payable by all energy suppliers, irrespective of power generation method, lifting the mood a little.
