Santa Clara University’s School of Engineering received a generous gift from an anonymous alumnus and his wife totaling US$1.3 million. The funding will go towards the launch of the Latimer Engineering Scholars Program, which beginning in the 2011 – 2012 academic year will sponsor teaching and research in the sustainable energy field.
Echoing other PV manufacturers comments over weak demand for solar products in key markets such as Germany and Italy in the first-half of the year, Conergy announced after the German stock market had closed that it was retracting its 2011 fiscal year guidance of sales topping €1 billion. Conergy did not provide new guidance for 2011.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has offered a conditional loan guarantee totalling US$1.2 billion to help build a 280MW Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant in southern California. If confirmed, the DOE guarantee will help fund the construction and start-up of Abengoa’s Mojave Solar Project (MSP), which is to be located around 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County.
Solon and UniSource Energy Services (UES) have agreed to develop a 1.22MW solar PV system on six acres of land owned by the Kingman Unified School District (KUSD) and located behind La Senita Elementary School in Arizona. The companies state that this will be the largest single physical PV system on school property in the state with UES owning and operating the system while Solon takes the lead on the engineering, procurement and construction services.
Former managing board member Scott Landstrom has been selected by the Direct Grid Technologies board as the company’s new CEO. Guy Ward, the previous Direct Grid CEO, will take on the role of executive chairman. A 25-year veteran of senior executive leadership, Landstrom previously worked at Lam Research as the VP of global field operations with prior executive experience coming from his time as president of Volex.
SolarWorld’s extended workmanship warranty, which insures the workmanship of its solar panels, has been increased from five years to 10 years with a retroactive activation for all panels delivered since January 1, 2011. The company revealed the warranty extension as it launched its Sunmodule Plus solar panels, which feature mono- and poly-crystalline panels.
Kyocera Solar’s new MyGen US-made solar kits are now available for residential and light-commercial solar energy installations being developed by new and veteran solar professionals alike. The domestically produced pre-engineered kits include modules, inverters, racking, monitoring, grounding, manual, drawings and all the marginal components needed to complete a solar installation.
In reporting first quarter financial results, metals specialist Timminco, noted that it had rebranded its solar grade silicon operations as ‘Timminco Solar’ and was executing a strategic marketing effort to communicate to PV manufacturers its ‘value proposition’ for the product. Timminco management said that the firm had shipped 135MT of solar grade silicon from inventory in the first four months of the year with 63MT alone shipped in April, 2011.
In an attempt to close the gap between design and manufacturing new PV inverter technology, SMA Solar Technology is acquiring dtw Sp.z o.o., one of Poland's largest electromagnetic components manufacturers. SMA said that dtw had been a supplier to the inverter firm for 10 years. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, though dtw was said to have annual revenue of €74 million. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and scheduled to be completed in July 2011.
The U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Kekaha, Hawaii is employing stainless steel racking and PV inverters, due to the tropical marine environment on the island that generates sea-salt moisture. Advanced Energy developed a stainless steel PV inverter range that is being used for the 787-kilowatt project. Maui Solar is developing the projects.
