Eletrosul, Brazil’s energy utility, advised that it has chosen Portuguese electronics and engineer Efacec and its Brazilian unit, Efacec do Brasil, to build its 1MW solar park. The consortium won the bid for Megawatt Solar by acknowledging that it can build the project for a total of US$4 million.
Another solar company has fallen prey to the weakened economy, and like its predecessors Solyndra and Abound Solar, won’t be going quietly into the Nevada night. A report by the Las Vegas Review Journal has noted that one year after opening its doors, Amonix closed its 214,000 square foot North Las Vegas manufacturing plant, which was subsidized by over US$20 million in federal tax credits and grants. Amonix supposedly began selling equipment, including automated tooling systems and robotic welding cells in an online auction Wednesday.
Solar modules supplier Worldwide Energy and Manufacturing USA has announced the resignation of the company’s director Michael O’Connor effective June 28, 2012, as well as the departure of Jeff Watson.
Concerns of Chinese retaliation against US countervailing and anti-dumping duties have manifested themselves in a complaint filed to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. MOFCOM has today released a statement regarding an application requesting an anti-dumping investigation into US and South Korean exports to China. On behalf of the Chinese solar industry, Jiangsu Silicon Technology Development, LDK Solar, Luoyan Sino-Silicon high-tech and New Energy, filed the complaint on July 2. Interested parties have 20 days to respond to the complaint.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States has okayed two loans, totalling US$57.3 million, which will see the exportation of US-made solar panels and ancillary services to Solar Field Energy Two and Mahindra Surya Prakash in India.
Waaree Energies revealed that it had landed a contract to deliver a 5.75MW turnkey thin-film solar PV plant for Shree Saibaba sugar factory in Latur, Maharashtra, India. No details were given as to a timeline for project completion.
Further to Clenergy’s large-scale ground-mounted PV project being developed by a utility in Dunhuang, the company has announced that it has signed a 15MW contract with an unnamed client towards a project covering four factories located across China. The installations will be in Tianjing Ninghe Modern Industry area Hengshui Economic Development Zone and Haikou National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone. The company will provide a customized PV-ezRack SolarRoof mounting solution, as previously exhibited on a 40MW solar power station developed in Jiayuguan last month.
TetraSun has disclosed that its monocrystalline Czochralski (Cz) silicon is now production-ready through the successful completion of its SunShot Initiative PV Incubator grant from the US Department of Energy (DoE). Alongside the DoE grant, since its founding in 2009, TetraSun has raised US$12 million from equity and strategic customer investors. TetraSun's technology turns monocrystalline Cz wafers into high-efficiency cells, in what the company claims as innovative and cost-effective, by making a surface passivation and replacing silver by copper.
Sunways’ management board approved the conclusion of, and entered into, an agreement with Deutsche Solar in order to resolve the early termination of two long-term contracts, originally concluded in 2006 and 2007, that provide for the supply of PV wafers by Deutsche Solar.
Regen SW recently published its “Renewable Energy Progress Report”, which, among other findings, demonstrates that renewable capacity in the South West of the UK has more than doubled over the past year. The renewable electricity capacity grew by 142% from 217MW in 2010/2011 to 525MW in 2011/2012. Solar Power Portal noted that the region’s growth was propelled by solar PV, which accounted for 237MW of all new renewable capacity during the 2011/2012 year.
