The North American Development Bank (NADBank) revealed that it is lending up to US$88.5 million to SunEdison for the development of a 20MW solar park in Picture Rocks, Arizona. This is the largest, and second, solar project financed by the NADBank. The solar park is expected to generate enough electricity for nearly 3,500 homes in the metropolitan area of Tucson.
Bloomberg is reporting that Suntech Power Holdings and Canadian Solar will be providing their solar panels to Tata Power for its US$68 million solar project. The 25MW plant in western Gujarat state will use crystalline silicon-based modules to power the solar array.
Having secured funding, Tata Power is continuing with its three-fold project in cooperation with BP Solar installing plants located in the Patan, Kutch and Mithapur areas of the state of Gujarat to be completed under its Solar Power Policy 2009.
Blaming weaker than expected revenue earnings on poor weather and other factors, First Solar lowered its 2011 revenue guidance and separately announced a restructuring of its core business groups with the exit of TK Kallenbach, President of the Components Business Group, at the end of the year. Restructuring will lead to a workforce reduction of approximately 100 associates, around 1.5% of its workforce, according to the company. First Solar revised 2011 guidance in the range of US$2.8 to US$2.9 billion, down from a prior guidance range of between US$3.0 and US$3.3 billion.
This month will see the completion of ESA Renewables’s 1.3MW commercial rooftop solar project in New Bern, North Carolina, US. ESA claims this will be one of the largest rooftop PV arrays in eastern North Carolina.
Soitec is looking to bring solar energy to even the most remote, and sunny, parts of the world with its newly launched Sunidarity program, an initiative to help development aid organizations in supporting their efforts to promote economic and human development in the more remote regions of the globe. Soitec plans to donate its new Plug&Sun technology to three selected projects, which will be chosen for their innovation, difficulty of the challenge they overcome and integration within a global development project.
Soltecture has revamped its solar energy services, going so far as to launch a new brand deign, in order to improve client accessibility. "The focus of our new brand design is our client: they will get a focused overview of our services and portfolio," explains Soltecture’s CSO Henrik Kruepper. "Through the integration of our system solutions with our range of services, and by renaming our products in less technical terms, we are delighted to give our brand a more focused and clear identity.”
PV Evolutions and Black & Veatch advised that they are collaborating to create what they deem as the industry’s first third-party PAN file generation and validation service. The companies’ overall aim is to provide accurate models of a PV project’s performance and value, which will in turn help the decision to investment in PV power plants easier on future project developers and investors.
Micro-cap module manufacturer, China Technology Development Group Corporation (CTDC) has been notified by NASDAQ Stock Market that its shares will be delisted on May 29, 2012 should the company fail to re-establish its common stock trading above US$1.00 minimum.
Canadian Solar has supplied 2.5MW of modules for two Siemens’s projects in southern Spain. The CS6X modules will power a carport and rooftop system at the University of Murcia.
