Following its two requests for tenders (RFTs), the French government has selected bids for 541MW of solar plants, using various technologies, including, five projects from Element Power Solar, which total 18MW. Element Power’s projects include the 2.06MW Tournus installation, the 9.51MW site in Orain, Besset’s 2.16MW project, the 2.66MW installation in Soucia and Sydom’s 1.36MW installation.
Eltek announced that Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has given the company’s THEIA HE-t grid tie solar inverters the highest ratings in its product safety certification. The UL certification qualifies them for sale in the North American market, with Eltek advising that the product line is available immediately.
Chinese inverter manufacturer GoodWe Solar Inverter has proposed plans to rebuild its logistics system in the UK, Ireland and other countries, yet to be specified, in cooperation with DSV, an international logistics company. The partnership involves logistics service, bonded warehouse and product delivery in the UK and Ireland.
ReneSola, a China-based manufacturer of solar modules and wafers, has received certification from the Standards Institution of Israel (SII) for its solar modules — including its Virtus, monocrystalline and multicrystalline series of solar modules.
PV module prices had enjoyed a short period of stability in June due to high demand in Germany and Italy, but begun to decline again in July. Over June, average prices fell by more than 2% and 44% down annually, according to the latest monthly module price report from IMS Research.
MPrime, a subsidiary of Martifer Solar, has announced its investment in an innovation programme for its photovoltaic module production line at the company’s factory in Oliveira de Frades, Portugal. The factory, which had already received ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OSHAS 18001 quality certification, now has an EL Tester to ensure greater quality control of the final product.
Management at Applied Materials spent little time discussing the performance of its Energy and Environmental Solutions (EES) division results, which houses the majority of its solar sector equipment and services to the PV industry. The company reported EES sales in its financial third quarter that were almost flat with the previous quarter at US$77 million. However, new orders decreased significantly to only US$35 million, compared to US$62 million in the prior quarter.
Independent, bank-approved engineering firm BEW recently gave Tigo Energy a positive bankability report, which casts Tigo Energy’s PV optimizer as suitable for deployment in commercial and utility-scale bank-owned solar systems.
A report by Bloomberg has brought Solyndra back into the spotlight. The now defunct company reached a US$3.5 million settlement with former workers who filed suit against Solyndra, alleging that they had not received adequate layoff notices. The settlement resolves the issue that the company did not give employees 60 days’ notice under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act when it fired most of its workforce on August 31, 2011.
