Sputnik Engineering is changing location from Paris to Saint Priest near Lyon. The managing director plans to continue to expand the sales and service of SolarMax products in France, improve responsiveness to customer needs, and expand the training program.
Renewable energy companies in Ontario have received approval for 184 new 'green' contracts under the country's feed-in tariff scheme, of which 77 are solar PV. This marks the largest renewable energy initiative in Canada to date, adding to the 510 medium-sized projects declared in March. The combined contracts are estimated to generate more than 2500MW.
BrightView Systems has announced the addition of Hai Benron to its management team, to support global marketing and sales efforts within the thin-film market. Benron will be positioned as the company's director of global business.
Officials from NASA have joined Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) to commission FPL's Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center, the new solar 75MW PV power facility formed through partnership between the two organizations.
Start-up energy company Green2V has announced that it will spend US$500 million over the next five years to build a 1 million-square-foot plant in Rio Rancho that will potentially provide 1,500 jobs in the area. The company will use the facility to manufacture solar cells and modular glass frames and will design, install, operate and finance the systems.
Mono-crystalline solar wafer producer, Shangahi Comtec Solar Technology has placed an order with Meyer Burger worth approximately €20.9 million for wire saws. Comtec is expanding capacity from 200MW to 400MW in 2010 and is a previous customer of Meyer Burger. The delivery is scheduled to start in April with completion until the end of 2010, Meyer Berger said.
Recurrent Energy has been awarded 154.5 MW (AC) of distributed solar power projects by the Ontario Power Authority under the province's new feed-in tariff program. (UPDATE: Note that original press release stated 145.5MW, but company has since said it actually received additional projects, pushing the total to 154.5MW.) The deal makes Recurrent the largest developer of such projects in Ontario under OPA’s FiT. The projects are expected to be completed in 2011 and early 2012, the company said.
Signet Solar has backed out of its plans to build a US$840 million manufacturing center in the city of Belen, New Mexico. The amorphous-silicon thin-film solar company was unable to keep its commitment, as it could not secure funding for the project from the U.S. Department of Energy. Back in January, DOE rejected the company's loan guarantee that was to back 80% of the US$220 million of the initial funding for the four-part expansion of the plant.
Having relied on its testing lab in Belgium for customers based in Asia for polyvinyl butyral (PVB) material testing and qualification until now, Solutia has opened a new testing lab in Suzhou, China, intended to significantly reduce lead times. The new facility will contain essential testing equipment, such as a bake oven, thermal bath, pummel testing equipment and an impact tower. Solutia said that the facility will also house a sample center, which will provide Saflex sheet samples on request to customers across the region.
The Bulgarian government has proposed a ban on the construction of all wind and solar projects built on farmland, alongside the suggested feed-in tariff cut. These applications are in response to a large uptake in renewables in the country since financial incentives were announced. The government is concerned that this will inflate energy prices for some of Europe's poorest consumers. Since the introduction of feed-in tariffs (FiT), Bulgaria has seen the installation of 11,000MW of solar, wind and biomass projects.
