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.
As PV manufacturing capacity continues to exceed demand, Suntech Power Holdings is attempting to better marry the two and in doing so lower costs by optimizing utilizations rates. With recent management shuffles, it’s the turn of its manufacturing operations with a ‘temporary reduction in solar cell capacity to 1.8GW.
After Arizona Public Service (APS) chose McCarthy Building to engineer, procure and construct its 14MW Hyder II Solar Power Plant in Hyder Arizona, the two companies noted that they have begun the permitting process for the new solar site.
ReneSola will soon be shipping 512kW of its solar modules to Cummings Properties, a commercial real-estate developer and property management organization in Massachusetts. The panels will be installed on the rooftop solar system of the Cummings Centre, which acts as a corporate campus and retail centre for Cummings Properties in Beverly, Massachusetts.
The National Post is reporting that the city of Toronto has entered an agreement with Toronto Hydro in order to install 8,800 solar panels on 10 city-owned arenas and community centres. The panels are expected to produce around 2,600MWh of electricity per year over the next 20 years.
United Insurance Brokers (UIB), an international insurance and reinsurance broker with headquarters in London, UK, has announced that it has won a contract to provide reinsurance for a 100MW power plant in southern Ukraine.
India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has proposed plans to turn 60 Indian cities into so-called “solar cities”. The region of Tripura, in north east India, located next door to Bangladesh, has been selected as a pilot to this scheme with an investment of Rs.452.32 crore, according to a ministry official. The MNRE is expected to bear 90% of the cost and the remaining would be shouldered by the Tripura government.
According to a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Vote Solar Initiative, US retail giant Walmart ranks number one in a list which identifies the top corporate companies using solar energy in the US for on-site consumption.
