SpectraWatt willo auction off its 140,000 square-foot crystalline silicon cell manufacturing and research facility in Hudson Valley at the end of the month. In August the cell manufacturer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the bulk and piecemeal auction, to be carried out by Heritage Global Partners, Counsel RB Capital and Silicon Valley Disposition, marks the first stage of financial restructuring.
The European association implementing a voluntary, industrywide program to recycle expired solar modules, PV Cycle, elected as president Sanyo adviser Wilfried Taetow at a special meeting last week in Hamburg during EU PVSEC.
Yingli Solar, the American subsidiary of China-based Yingli Green Energy, will sponsor free solar modules for fifty low-income families on the United States west coast, in collaboration with non-profit solar installer GRID Alternatives.
DEGERenergie has won a contract to supply two new solar parks in Italy with its DEGERtrakers 6000NT. Installation of the two systems, located in the province of Enna in Sicily and with a combined capacity of 2MW, is already underway and when completed they will be equipped with 7.35 kWp modules and a total of 270 trackers. Etna Energia is managing the new systems.
Two weeks after Conergy was busy putting out fires surrounding the rumors that it was planning to close its manufacturing plant in Frankfurt, the company has advised that it will be halting production of its wafer and cell manufacturing lines at the German facility. The company advised that its PV module production at the Oder plant would continue, but that the over-capacity, price pressures and the inability to cover the costs of wafer and cell manufacturing had forced it to discontinue the productions for the time being.
Constellation Energy has initiated its solar panel leasing program for residential customers in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Customers in Maryland will have the solar offer conducted through Constellation’s subsidiary, BGE Home.
Realforce Power, a China-based cell, module and integrated system provider, has completed work on a PV array on the roof of a technology institute in Shandong province. With a capacity of 2.5MW, it is one of the largest rooftop systems in China and will cut coal emissions in the province by 1,227 tonnes.
DuPont Microcircuit Materials (MCM) has announced the release of its latest photovoltaic metallization paste, with 15% less silver than previous pastes. The introduction of the Solamet PV51M comes as part of the company’s continued attempts to reduce the silver content of its pastes by 20%, in the face of rising silver prices.
The German government could impose harsher-than-expected cuts to solar energy subsidies next year due to a rise in solar panel installations, according to a Reuters report. In June and July, around 1.25GW of PV capacity was installed in Germany, a figure higher than the figure achieved in the preceding five months of the year combined, and while Germany's network regulator declined to comment on these reported figures, government sources have indicated this will prompt a 15% cut to incentives in January.
One of Japan’s main power suppliers, Kansai Electric Power, has started commercial operation of its 10MW PV plant in Sakai City, Osaka, reports Bloomberg. The plant, which started partial operation in October 2010, is one of the largest in Japan and generates enough electricity to power around 3,000 homes.