SunPower and California’s San Ramon Valley Unified School District celebrated the 3.3MW of solar projects installed across five school sites for the San Ramon school district. It is estimated that the five projects will produce over two-thirds of school’s energy needs over the system’s lifetime. California High School, Dougherty Valley High School, Monte Vista High School, San Ramon Valley High School and Diablo Vista Middle School all saw the solar installations completed earlier this month.
Trina Solar has also denied any wrongdoing over a spat with other PV manufacturers, headed by SolarWorld that have claimed a number of China-based producers over unfair practices, including pricing. Trina noted that the subsequent proceedings would reveal the allegations “unfounded.” Suntech Power and Yingli Green have already denied any unfair practices in official statements.
Abound Solar is planning to triple the capacity of its thin-film module manufacturing plant in Colorado by the end of 2012. The site expansion will see annual production capacity reach 200MW and help the company meet growing global demand for cadmium telluride modules.
Campbell Soup Company is leasing 14 acres of its facility in Sacramento, US, to American Capital Energy (ACE). A Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and Land Lease Agreement (LLA) will allow ACE to construct a 2.3MW capacity PV solar power generation ground mount tracker system on the grounds. ACE will own the system and be responsible for its construction, operation and maintenance.
Citing some customer cutbacks in solar module manufacturing production levels and continued pressure on wafer prices that have declined more than 50% since April this year, PV Crystalox Solar is taking drastic measures to reduce cash burn in difficult times for the global PV industry. The company guided a significant reduction in wafer shipments, compared to previous forecasts, job losses and short time working.
After SolarWorld filed a petition with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and the Department of Commerce (DOC) to stop what it considered unfair trade practices by China, Suntech Power Holdings has issued a response.
Contractor Würth Solar commissioned the Farsala solar power plant on December 2010. Since January 4, 2011, this open space system, built as a turn-key facility, has been supplying electricity to the Greek grid. It has now achieved its full load capacity of 5MW. The electricity output of the Farsala plant covers the annual energy requirements of more than 1,600 Greek households. Whilst, at the same time, about 3,700 tons of CO2 emissions are saved per year.
Euro Projects has chosen Emerson as inverter supplier for its two recently-completed installations in Sardinia, Italy. The combined capacity of the two systems, located adjacent to one another in the municipality of Villaperuccio, is 10MW and Emerson will equip both sites with its utility-scale power inverters and management systems.
The Solar Gateway Project – a combined effort from full-service construction company Gilbane Co. and solar panel manufacturer SunPower Corp. – is underway to build a 1.1MW solar power system at California-based West Valley College campus. With SunPower's high-efficiency solar panels, the system will generate approximately one-third of West Valley College's electricity demand and save more than US$9 million.
