In the closing of Series C funding, SunRun received $55 million for their renewable energy alternative for homeowner’s electricity. The financing round was led by Sequoia Capital and included Accel Partners and Foundation Capital. Series C funding followed SunRun and PG&E’s $100 million tax equity project financing agreement for SunRun installation in over 3,500 homes.
Strong demand for solar installations across multiple markets such as Europe, U.S., Japan, and China but especially Germany has forced market research firm Solarbuzz to increase its forecast for the solar industry in 2010. The firm has also made upward adjustments to its 2009 final installation figures to 7.5GW, compared to its previous projection of 7.3GW, issued in April.
Richard Swanson (pictured), CTO and cofounder of SunPower, is the 2010 recipient of the IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa medal, which is sponsored by the Federation of Electric Power Companies, Japan, and the Semiconductor Research Foundation, Japan. The medal was awarded for Swanson’s concept and commercialization of high-efficiency point-contact crystalline-silicon solar cell technology.
Tigo Energy has signed with Copia Energy, a Japanese distributor, for the global distribution of Tigo’s Maximizer Solution. The technology, introduced in 2009, is said to provide up to a 20% increase in energy production, active management capabilities, and safety for utility, commercial and residential PV solar arrays. Orders for the Maximizer will be available through Copia’s catalog and website.
Being held in conjunction with the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC), in Valencia, Spain, during the second week of September, the PV Production Forum 2010 will be part of the 25th EU PVSEC/WPEC-5. Having been organized by the International Photovoltaic Equipment Association (IPVEA), the one-day PV production-focused conference program has now been made available.
S.A.G. Solarstrom has concluded the long-term financing of its 13.6MWp project located in Stribro, Czech Republic, with the Bayern LB and the LBBW via the project company Solar Stribro. The company will pay the loan on June 30 in the amount of €30.4 million. The sales negotiations for the project, with a total investment volume of over €60 million, are also nearing completion.
With a current capacity of only 20MW, CIS (copper indium selenide) thin-film manufacturer Avancis has broken ground on a new 100MW plant in Torgau, Germany. The company will ramp the facility in the first quarter of 2012, using its third-generation cell process technology, which achieved 15.1% efficiency (30 x 30 cm², fully encapsulated CIS solar module) in January. The company announced plans in early June.
Siliken Renewable Energy and Pacific Blue Energy have come together to bid a local utility for the development of a 15MW solar farm on 154.3 acres near Flagstaff, Arizona. The site, known as the Sunshine Solar Farm, is located in Coconino County and has the capacity to support 20MW of solar electricity generation from fixed tilt or single axis tracking systems.
The $32,600,000 sales contract signed by Universal Solar Technology and CEZ Group will see the delivery of 20MW of monocrystalline solar modules to CEZ by the end of this year. CEZ is one of the largest electricity producers in the Czech Republic.
Working together, Dainippon Screen Manufacturing and Gifu University have produced a new technology that analyzes the characteristics of amorphous silicon films for thin-film silicon solar cell panels. The result from the research of the new technology is being used in spectroscopic ellipsometric film thickness measurement systems by Screen. Product creation is expected to be completed by this fall.
