Sempra Generation agreed to a 20-year power purchase agreement with PG&E during which it will sell 150MW of solar power produced at its Mesquite Solar I project. The Mesquite project is the first phase of Sempra’s solar complex in Arlington, Arizona and is expected to begin construction in 2011 with completion in 2013. The PPA awaits final approval by the California Public Utilities Commission.
Long-term cooperation agreements could lead to equipment and project orders worth €2 billion for Gebr. Schmid and Schmid Silicon Technology after a delegation to China under the leadership of Germany’s Minster of Economics, Rainer Bruederle had been held. The agreements are expected to be made with Guodian Electronics Group, Sanmenxia Dijiu Mining and DMEGC Group, the company said.
Two key executive roles have been assigned at thin-film joint venture, 3Sun. Retaining his position at STMicroelectronics, Andrea Cuomo becomes chairman, while Enel executive, Mauro Curiale, will become 3Sun’s CEO.
In a quasi-OEM module agreement, LDK Solar will be supplying 30MW of c-Si modules using Sunways own solar cells in an effort to offer greater choice of competitive products to its distribution partners. Sunways said that the supply agreement was for one-year but expected to extend the contract in the future. The first solar modules from the new partnership will be available in the market within a few weeks.
Upon completing internal production development and testing, Ascent Solar announced that Johns Manville (JM) will begin beta testing on its CIGS laminated modules at the JM Technical Center (JMTC) in Littleton, Colorado. The IEC 61646 modules, which have been certified and are awaiting UL certification, will be compared against existing thin-film modules that are installed at JMTC.
Forget the shiny new solar modules with their aesthetically pleasing black anodized frames courting the fashion-conscious residential rooftop owner at Solar Power International, but rather go and check out the big powerful stuff. The U.S. is a big country, has big electrical needs and has a huge multigigawatts pipeline of utility-scale projects waiting in the wings.
Sustainable Energy Technologies announced that it will be moving its North American inverter assembly and test center to Guelph, Ontario, with an expected 4MW per month production of its Sunergy inverters by the first quarter 2011. Melitron, a Guelph based manufacturer, will run the facility and also provide enclosures for the Sunergy inverter.
Satcon Technology’s Solstice will be used in the 63MW CIRO One solar PV plant being built in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The project will use 126 Satcon Solstice 500kW applications, at its 180 acre site in the Lapas District of Salinas, producing approximately 116 million kW hours of energy per year. Construction on the project is to begin this month.
The technical/economic debate over ever increasing Directional Solidification System (DSS) furnace sizes that cast multi-crystalline ingots, heats-up with the news that GT Solar is beta testing with select customers its next DSS crystalline growth furnace, the ‘DSS650.’ The larger furnace capacity of up to 650 kilograms comes hot on the heals of the official launch in May, 2010 of the ‘DSS450HP,’ a high performance ingot growth furnace with a thermally optimized, second-generation hot zone that claimed to have improved throughput while delivering industry-leading crystal quality.
Evergreen Solar is aiming to expand its European reach with four new sales managers to service each of its key European regions: Germany, Italy, Spain and France. All the new sales managers will be charged with continuing to broaden the company’s presence in Europe while also maintaining current sales relationships in each region. The new managers will report directly to Thomas Hofmann, Evergreen’s director of sales for Europe.
