South Africa’s Department of Energy has approved Soitec Energy as one of the preferred bidders under the country’s independent power producer (IPP) programme. Soitec’s first installation under this programme will be a 50MW CPV system next to the Aquila Private Game Reserve in Touwsrivier on the Western Cape.
Effective January 1, 2012, Robert Yorgensen will be STR Holdings’ new CEO and president. Dennis Jilot, who has served as the company’s CEO since 1997 will be retiring from the positions, but intends to remain as chairman of the board of directors.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have issued Rockford Solar Partners, a joint venture between Wanxiang American and New Generation Power, the FONSI, “Finding of No Significant Impact” for the proposed 20MW solar farm at the Rockford Airport. The project will be able to utilize 70 acres of land at the Chicago-Rockford International Airport for what is being called the largest commercial airport-based solar project in the US.
Suntech Power has received the 2011 Gigaton Prize for its role in reducing carbon emissions around the world and leading efforts in the fight against climate change.
Researchers from Fraunhofer Instituts für Solare Energiesysteme (ISE), Freiburg and the Carnot-Institut Laboratoire d‘électronique des technologies de l‘information (CEA-LETI) in Paris have been awarded the Franco-German Business award for their work on developing reusable substrates for III-V multi-junction solar cells.
Soltecture has produced the first 100W thin-film modules from its Berlin Adlershof manufacturing line. The modules have an efficiency of 13.4% and Soltecture CEO Nikolaus Meyer believes their launch is an important step in its long-term target of achieving 16% efficiency.
Bisol’s PV modules have passed a salt mist corrosion test exhibiting less that a 1% decrease in electrical performance. The newly obtained IEC 61071 certificate demonstrates that mechanical and insulation properties are retained, ensuring high energy yields for PV plants located in coastal areas or areas with higher salt mist concentrations.
Nearly one month after Q-Cells released its third quarter results, and its former CFO, the company has announced the addition of Clemens Jargon as the marketing and product management lead for Q-Cells’ sales products and systems division.
Enecsys announced that it has established a partnership with SMTC, a global electronics manufacturing service provider, which will see the company manufacture its micro inverters for the Canadian market at SMTC’s Markham facility in the York region of Ontario. This partnership will allow for Enecsys to meet and partake in the Ontario Power Authority’s FiT domestic content requirement for renewable energy projects.
Enel Green Power advised that its 5MW solar plant in Barrafranca, in the province of Enna, Italy, has been completed, bringing its total installed capacity to nearly 77MW worldwide. The Sicilian PV plant uses over 20, 000 solar panels to generate 7.2 million kWh of electricity every year.
