Led by Austin Venture, Lincoln Renewable Energy (LRE) has closed its most recent round of private funding at US$14 million. Aside from Austin Ventures, contributors also included private investors and LRE management and founding investors. Furthermore, Ken DeAngelis, general partner, and Clark Jernigan, venture partner, and both part of Austin Ventures, will become members of LRE’s board.
Colexon Energy closed out 2010 with the sale of three of its solar power plants to an undisclosed Irish investment company. The €11.5-million sale marks the largest order volume of Colexon in the Italian market to date. The three plants: Leo at 998kWp, Corvo at 997kWp and Valle at 997kWp were developed and constructed as turnkey projects by Colexon Italia, a subsidiary of Colexon Energy.
Zigor has agreed to work with Guascor Solar and supply inverters and cabinets for two of Guascor Solar’s Italian PV plants. The total power for the two fixed structures will stand at 10.5MW with Zigor delivering its Sunzet 125MV inverter, grouped in a 500kW configuration.
Plutonic Power and GE Energy Financial Services have agreed to buy three of First Solar’s power plants in Ontario, Canada. Permitting for the projects, which have a combined capacity of 50MW, is expected to take place this spring and construction scheduled to start in June.
NanoMarkets has published a new report claiming that novel encapsulation and substrate materials are the key to the long-term survival of organic photovoltaics (OPV) and dye-sensitized cell (DSC) photovoltaics. The report, titled 'Encapsulation and Flexible Substrates for Organic and Dye-Sensitized Photovoltaics', predicts that a US$1.3 billion encapsulation and substrate market will be possible by 2017, if manufacturers of these materials can offer products that will facilitate use of OPV and DSC technology into the building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) sector.
TerniEnergia has completed the construction of 31 industrial sized photovoltaic plants, together totalling 33.3MWp. A sum of 4.4MWp was developed for Joint Venture’s power generation business, with the remaining built on behalf of third parties. The new plants are located in Sardegna, Umbria, Lazio, Puglia, Piemonte, Abruzzo, Veneto, Toscana e Campania regions.
Ceradyne has completed its acquisition of VIOX, a specialty glass company based in Seattle, Washington. Over the past few years VIOX has seen around 70% of its sales come from solar glass products, which have been specifically formulated for polycrystalline silicon solar PV applications. Ceradyne bought VIOX with a US$27 million cash payment at closing, which also includes a post-closing adjustment in two months. Additionally, conditional payment of up to US$22 million may be paid if VIOX reaches certain sales diversification and earnings targets over a 30-month period after the closing.
CIGSSe photovoltaic module manufacturer Stion said it will build a new production facility in Mississippi as part of an incentive agreement with the state that includes a $75 million loan and other tax and training incentives. The project, which will be the first thin-film solar panel factory in Mississippi, will deliver more than 1000 jobs and $500 million of investment over the next six years.
After months of speculation surrounding the country’s solar feed-in tariff, Turkey has now made photovoltaic power generation subsidy payments law. Under the regulation, payments for renewable energy generation will be determined as dollar cent, as opposed to Euro cent, in Turkish Parliament.
The German module manufacturer, Sovello, has now received official accreditation to supply its modules in the U.K., Australia and Ireland as well as in Florida and California in the U.S. The certificates from the Australian Clear Energy Council (CEC), the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), the British BRE Global, the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), and Go Solar California were issued in Q4 2010.
