Deutsche Bank’s 7.56MW solar park in the southeast Italian commune of Torre Santa Susanna has been officially opened. Torre Santa Susanna is one of the largest tracking solar systems in Europe and is powered by 32,202 Sanyo’s HIT solar modules fitted on Ideematec safetrack technology.
With a meeting schedule to rival ours at Intersolar Europe, 2011 PV-Tech grabbed Commerzbank analyst, Ben Lynch off the show floor to get his insight on current market dynamics and component pricing trends within the PV industry.
Rapidly declining PV module prices are set to fuel a strong recovery in module shipments in the second half of the year, according to the latest analysis from IMS Research. The bullish report is guiding sequential shipment growth of an average of 30% in the third and fourth quarter with full-year shipments forecasted to reach over 23GW.
German laser system supplier 4JET has won the Deutscher Gründerpreis Award 2011. The award, sponsored by Porsche, German magazine Stern, ZDF Television and the Sparkasse Banking Group, was presented to 4JET for not just its exceptional financial growth over the past 12 months but also for creating a business model that promises further growth in the years ahead.
The 6.7MW solar installation at the US General Services Administration (GSA) Denver Federal Center (DFC) is almost complete with all solar installations on the GSA DFC campus anticipated to be online by the end of the year. The latest solar installation has been combined with DFC’s 1.2MW solar park, which was installed in 2007. GSA secured added funding in 2009 to construct the 6.7MW solar installation that is currently being completed.
TecnoSun Solar Systems’ US Division, TecnoSun Solar USA, is settling into its new US headquarters at the University of Toledo’s Nietzsche Commercialization Complex in Ohio. The site will be the home base for the company’s marketing, sales, manufacturing, installation and servicing of its 1 and 2 axis solar tracking systems in North America.
TNO spin-off company, SoLayTec has sold the first four of its Al2O3 ultrafast ALD (atomic layer deposition) Process Development Tools (PDT) to separate customers that include imec, Fraunhofer ISE and two unidentified Asia-based solar cell manufacturers. SoLayTec said that the tools would be installed in the third and fourth quarter of 2011.
Yet more uncertainty overshadowed Australia’s solar industry at the end of last week as the South Australian Government discussed the future of the state’s feed-in tariff. Having originally planned to increase the incentive rate from 44c to 54c, plus a mandatory additional contribution from electricity retailers, the Government is now tipped to keep the tariff at 44c until the end of September for solar households entering the scheme.
While Barack Obama may have reneged on his promise to put solar panels on the roof of the White House by the end of spring, the US Government shows no sign of backtracking on his other solar commitments, with further evidence of this seen last Thursday as Energy Secretary Steven Chu paid a visit to Amonix’s new production facility in Las Vegas.
Solar Frontier has won a contract with juwi solar to provide 3.8MW of its thin-film solar modules for a solar project in the northeast US. The solar installation is set to be completed by the end of the year and will be operated by a regulated northeast utility. Solar Frontier’s new Kunitomi plant in Miyazaki, Japan will manufacture the CIS modules for the solar project.
