Nearly 200,000 of Q-Cells' CIGS thin-film solar modules are being used in GP Joule’s 20.8MW Solarpark Ammerland, which is said to be the largest deployment of CIGS panels yet. The project, which celebrated its grand opening today, was constructed in just over eight weeks and was developed by Martin Bucher with Module24 selecting Q-Cells to provide its modules for the plant. Q-Cells noted that in addition to supplying its solar module technology, it also gave technical support during the project’s installation.
The Bundesnetzagentur, Germany's Federal Network Agency, will cut the country's solar feed-in tariff (FiT) by 15% in 2012. The subsidy reduction is more severe than the 12% forecasted by many industry insiders and was triggered by the 5.2GW of new capacity installed between October 2010 and September 2011.
Motech Industries released its Q3 2011 financial results, which saw the company’s revenue grow 17% over Q2 2011 results to US$251.83 million. Additionally, the company’s net losses went down to US$19 million, from the second quarter’s US$21.47 million.
The T-Solar Group, which has 230MW of solar projects under construction in Spain, Italy, India and Peru, advised that it is continuing its international development with the addition of 61MW of solar power in Peru and India. The company recently brought its 5MW PV power plant in India online, which uses thin-film amorphous silicon panels that were fabricated at its Galicia, Spain factory.
As of October 1, IBC Solar’s MonoSol and PolySol series solar modules have been outfitted with a 10-year product warranty, which supports the modules 25-year linear power warranty. The new 10-year warranty covers the IBC MonoSol and IBC PolySol series of modules if they show any defects that can be attributed to their manufacturing or materials faults and therefore effect the module’s functionality.
BioSolar advised that its BioBacksheet has been granted provisional relative thermal index (RTI) recognition by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). The company first received UL materials certification for its technology in February and since that time has seen the UL conduct long-term thermal stability testing on the BioBacksheet.
Bisol and Avdira Solar have entered a contract, which will see Avdira Solar distributing 100MW of Bisol’s solar PV modules over the next three years. Avdira will commence with the delivery of its first 25MW throughout 2012. Both companies advised that the agreement was a way for them to each have a better foothold in the Greek solar market.
Solon will be building a 10MW solar PV plant near Kingman, Arizona for UniSource Energy Services (UES), which, under a 20-year PPA, will allow the utility to provide renewable power to its customers without the upfront cost of the system installation. The 10MW array will accompany the 1.22MW UES-owned solar array that Solon developed near Kingman’s La Senita Elementary School.
In August it was reported that project executive Activ Solar had completed the first two stages of its solar project in Okhotnykovo, Ukraine. Now with the final phase of construction realized, this Austrian PV company has accomplished its goal to have the largest solar plant in central and eastern Europe.
Earlier this year, Veeco announced its impending exit from the CIGS thin-film PV business and with its announcement advised of its intentions to transfer its R&D facility and pilot line in New York to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at the University of Albany. Three months after the initial declaration, Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, Senior VP and CEO of CNSE, and Congressman Chris Gibson, came together to formally launch CNSE’s new Solar Energy Development Center in Halfmoon, New York, which has taken over the facility once occupied by Veeco.
