Somerset Tire Service’s (STS) Bridgewater, New Jersey distribution center is donning a new 1MW solar installation with 5,488, 185W PV modules by Mitsubishi Electric and installation completed by Advanced Solar Products (ASP). The rooftop solar system is anticipated to produce 1,197MWh of electricity per year.
First Solar’s Series 3 CdTe thin-film solar modules have received the International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC) 61701 certification for salt mist corrosion, confirming the use of the Series 3 modules in coastal environments. The certification involves testing and studying the module’s performance in coastal environments, which are prone to corrosive salt mist.
US-based inverter manufacturer Solectria Renewables has delivered four 266kW SGI 266 smartgrid inverters to BlueChip Energy for what will be the largest PV rooftop installation in Florida. The inverters will power the first 1.5MW stage of the 10MW Rinehart Solar Farm project located in Lake Mary, Florida.
Plextronics has scored US$15 million during its financing round from Solvay, its largest minority shareholder, which will go towards stepping up the company’s technology development and delivery of its products to customers located worldwide. Plextronics is focused on developing polymer-based materials and technologies for key applications of printed electronics such as organic light emitting diodes (OLED) and organic PV cells (OPV).
Sustainable Energy Technology and Würth Solar will be working on a 90kW demonstration project, which will be installed at the Lycée Technique Louis Couffignal in Strasbourg, France. Using Sustainable Energy’s Paralex system design and Würth Solar’s CIS modules, the project is part of a cooperation agreement the two companies hold that aims to provide commercial and institution customers with “parallel” solutions for rooftops in France.
Q-Cells closed the sale of its Finsterwalde II and III PV power plants to Blue Forrest Solar Holding, a joint venture formed between DIF Infrastructure (DIF) and the NIBC European Infrastructure Fund (NIBC). The two plants have a combined installed capacity of 40MWp, which when added with the Finsterwalde I PV power plant Q-Cells sold in 2010, leads the entire site to have an 82MWp installed capacity.
Over the next few months Parabel is planning to install PV rooftop systems with a combined capacity of around 6MW in the German states of Brandenburg and Saxony.
Not wanting to be left in the shade in this record-breaking year for solar cells, First Solar has reported that its test cadmium-telluride (CdTe) cells have reached 17.3% conversion efficiencies. The figure – confirmed by NREL – trumps the previous record of 16.7%, which was achieved back in 2001.
Cadbury Cocoa Partnership is looking to bring photovoltaics to West Africa by installing solar lanterns and panels in Ghana. The scheme will see lanterns given to cocoa farmers and panels installed in rural schools across the country.
eIQ Energy has appointed Jerry Cutini as its new president and chief executive officer. Former board member Cutini will be charged with leading the company into a new stage of growth and preparing it for MW-scale deployment.
