PvXchange has named Michael Mueller as CEO and Olaf Emmerich as CMO after the recent investment round from WHEB Partners. Mueller will oversee the company’s new international unit, pvXchange, in Zug, Switzerland. The company intends to continue recruiting and expanding its international reach while further developing its trading technology.
Swiss PV solution company HopSol has entered into a three-year contract with Solar Frontier. The deal will have a market focus in Southern Africa with Solar Frontier delivering double digit megawatts of its CIS solar panels for solar projects in countries such as Namibia, Botswana and the Republic of South Africa. The companies did not reveal the financial details of the supply deal.
Despite changes expected to the UK feed-in tariff that would make large-scale projects uneconomical, while retaining incentives for the residential rooftop market, First Solar has gained Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) certification for its CdTe thin-film modules.The MCS accreditation applies to First Solar’s Series 3 modules FS-370 to FS-385.
In a move that will help bolster the company's bankability, JinkoSolar's panels are now under warranty with PowerGuard Specialty Insurance Services. Noted insurance broker Marsh facilitated the agreement between the Chinese PV manufacturer and the renewable energy insurance/risk management firm.
Recent reports that indicated PV inverters are responsible for 59% of total PV project failure costs - a startling statistic – underscore the relevancy of a new in-depth assessment of the PV inverter market and technologies by GTM Research. However, the good news is that GTM’s analysis suggests that a new wave of next-generation inverter technologies (both for large-scale and residential markets) are expected to offer significant improvements and, importantly, provide for greater adoption of utility-scale PV as well as better returns for the residential customer as feed-in tariffs decline.
National Grid has given a US$225,000 Renewable Energy and Economic Development grant to the University of Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) to help fund a photovoltaic control and monitoring centre (PVCMC). The monitoring centre, located in the Albany NanoTech Complex, will facilitate the collection of real-time research data to help with the installation of roof-mounted PV systems.
Solland Solar is planning to start commercial sales of its ‘Sunweb’ modules, using ‘metal wrap through’ (MWT) solar cells in the fourth quarter of 2011. The company noted that it had already delivered and had installed modules to reference projects in both the UK and the Netherlands, with further projects in the pipeline for the target markets of Italy, France, Belgium and Germany.
Five buildings at US Navy base Pearl Harbor, known now as the Joint base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, in Oahu, Hawaii are in the midst of a US$15 million project, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Intended to increase the base’s energy independence by using renewable energy, a combined 2.4MW solar array has been installed using SolarWorld panels, which include its crystalline silicon technology, and is spread across five buildings at the historic base.
Microinverter firm, SPARQ, headquartered in Kingston, Ontario is to have its new microinverters and communications hubs for PV systems manufactured by Sanmina-SCI at its Ottawa facility, which is certified for Ontario's Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program, and at Sanmina-SCI's worldwide regional facilities for global distribution.
Already in evaluation as a substrate for thin film amorphous silicon (a-Si) modules and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) applications, DuPont’s colourless polyimide film, ‘Kapton’ is also being developed for cadmium telluride (CdTe) applications that open-up new markets for the technology in the fields of lightweight, flexible and high-efficiency applications. Currently, the flexible thin-film market is dominated by a-Si and CIGS-based technologies.
