Cleantech finance company De Lage Landen has finalized an agreement that will see the company’s Clean Technology Group team up with Tioga Energy to provide long-term financing for an 856kW solar project in Honolulu, Hawaii. Built for Oceanic Time Warner at its Mililani Tech Park, the project is a combination rooftop and solar parking canopy and is said to be the largest of its kind in the state of Hawaii.
Commercial operation has begun at Western Wind Energy’s Kingman I wind and solar project in Mohave County, Arizona. The 10.5MW system is the first purpose-built joint wind and solar project in North America and the electricity generated will be sold to Unisource Electric Services.
A new report from Greenpeace has claimed that a switch to renewable energy sources would allow Japan to permanently close its entire nuclear portfolio by 2012 without jeopardizing economic growth. Findings from the "Advanced Energy [R]evolution Report for Japan" have put a further nail in the coffin of an industry still reeling from the fallout of March’s Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.
OPEL Solar has advised of its recent agreement with Energi Insurance Services, which will see the solar company buy Energi’s Manufacturer’s Product Warranty (MPW) Insurance for its TF-800 solar tracking systems. The additional insurance will supplement the company’s five-year limited, or optional 10-year extension, warranty, for material and equipment.
Southern California Edison (SCE) will install the largest single-building solar rooftop system in the US at an industrial property in Perris, California. Dexus Property Group has signed a 20-year lease with SCE for the 513,588m2 rooftop space, which will soon be home to 36,000 solar panels. The record-breaking system, which will have a peak capacity of 10MW, is part of a network of solar plants SCE is building throughout southern and central California.
The Renewable Energy Corporation has terminated a long-term wafer sales contract with an unnamed customer. The Norweigan PV giant will receive USD$40 million in compensation, which will be paid out in Q3.
Several days of angry demonstrations by local residents after a fluoride leak from a JinkoSolar-owned cell manufacturing plant have led to the plant closing. According to reports, the plant had been warned of environmental noncompliance earlier this year, but after residents broke through gates, overturning cars and ransacking offices, local government officials have ordered the closure of the plant in Hongxiao, China.
Berlin-based White Owl Capital had acquired 5 PV power plants built by Gehrlicher Solar Italia, a subsidiary of Gehrlicher Solar for an undisclosed sum. Using First Solar CdTe thin film modules and SMA inverters, all the plants were grid connected before feed-in tariffs were reduced at the end of August, 2011. The projects, with a total power of 10.4MWp, are situated in the regions of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy.
The first to tout new order bookings directly from the EU PVSEC event, held last week in Hamburg, Germany goes to Singulus Technologies. The company noted that it received an unspecified number of orders for its ‘VITRUM’ wet-chemical processing system for thin film solar modules.
First Solar has completed two PV power plants in Ontario, Canada for Enbridge. The smaller, 5MW Tilbury Solar Project uses 82,500 CdTe modules, while the Amherstburg II Project, split over two sites of 10MW and 5MW, employs 244,000 of the same First Solar modules. Combined costs of the projects were said to been approximately CAD$90 million.
