NEOptions, the Bulgarian Development Collaborative and SDN spent three years working together to produce what they claim as the largest solar PV project in Bulgaria and one of the largest in the EU: a 45MW solar PV project made up of one 20MW installation and another 25MW solar PV installation in the towns of Samovodene and Zlataritsa, Bulgaria. Construction has started on the solar PV project, with 5MW already completed.
JinkoSolar Holdings has signed an agreement with Innovalight granting JinkoSolar the right to purchase Innovalight’s silicon ink and license its processing technology for the manufacturing of solar cells. JinkoSolar is looking at this contract with Innovalight’s technology to yield efficiencies over 18.6% in its monocrystalline solar cells during the first half of 2011.
Day4 Energy and Motech Industries have agreed to an extension in the supply contract the two companies have for the delivery of multicrystalline silicon solar cells. Motech will considerably increase the contracted quantity of the solar cells they supply to Day4 and its Day4 solarSystems manufacturing partners, although neither company revealed the amount to be supplied. Delivery is set to begin in early January 2011.
SunPower has closed its €195.2 million solar bond issuance for its 44MW Montalto di Castro park in Italy. The proceeds will be used to fund further development of the facility, which is scheduled to be sold before the end of the year.
The California Energy Commission (CEC) has approved the construction and operation of two solar-thermal power plants with a planned total capacity of some 500MW at the Palen location in California. The second project location, developed by the American project development unit of the Solar Millennium Group, will therefore go ahead as planned. The entire approval procedure is expected to be completed with the decision by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at the beginning of next year.
Chevron Energy Solutions, Oceanic Time Warner Cable and Tioga Energy have started construction work on a joint venture at Oceanic's Mililani Tech Park. When completed, the 856KW facility will be the largest solar canopy project on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
Solarfun Power has officially opened its North American office, located in Cheshire, Connecticut. The new office, which is Solarfun's second location in North America, is aimed at strengthening the company's service to customers and partners in the region. Solarfun also maintains a facility in Costa Mesa, California.
After 30 years as principal scientist at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Gary Jorgensen is retiring to join SkyFuel as principal materials scientist. Amongst other achievements during his time at the NREL, Jorgensen co-invented ReflecTech Mirror Film, which used in SkyFuel's parabolic trough concentrating solar collector.
