Sunpower announced its plans to design and build a 1MW solar electric power plant, which is owned by Bluenergia. The solar plant will be located in Mesagne, Comune di Brindisi, Italy and has an anticipated completion date of sometime in early 2010.
Millipore’s chairman and CEO, Martin Madaus, was joined by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and other public figures for a ribbon cutting ceremony that celebrated the company’s completion of its $2 million solar panel installation at its Bedford, Massachusetts, campus. The solar project will provide renewable energy for Millipore’s Bedford and Billerica, Massachusetts sites.
Phoenix Solar is expecting the French solar market to become important to its revenue stream in coming years. Having recently established a France-based operation, Phoenix Solar has secured a contract with E.ON Climate & Renewables GmbH to plan and build a solar power plant with a capacity of 1.5MW in Le Lauzet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region on a southern alpine slope at an altitude of 1,000 m.
In a rather depressed North Carolina economy, SAS, groSolar and FLS Energy have come together and announced the joint development of a second solar farm on SAS’ Cary, NC, headquarters. The estimated March 2010 completion of the project will generate around 1.9 million kilowatt-hours annually, which provides enough energy to power over 200 homes.
Timminco said that it was increasing production of silicon metal at its subsidiary, Becancour Silicon due to further purchase commitments from existing customers. As a result, Becancour Silicon will restart the third of its three electric arc furnaces to meet demand. The company is expected to recall some of the workforce that had been laid-off earlier this year, when demand had fallen.
China Sunergy announced that, effective immediately, Siegfried Yi Chou Hsu, will be the company’s new Chief Financial Officer while Shiliang Guo, the company’s current acting CFO, has resigned from the position and will remain as a director.
Merck and Dyesol have announced their plans to work together to create electrolytes for use in dye solar cells (DSC). The joint agreement is slated to be an indication of the potential for future commercial agreements, which would allow Merck to manufacture existing and next generation electrolytes for DSC applications such as photovoltaic renewable energy sources.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has signed a contract with Agua Caliente Solar, a subsidiary of NextLight Renewable Power, for 290MW of solar power to serve PG&E's customers in Northern and Central California. This is one of many contracts signed by the utility with independent developers aiming for a total of 830MW of solar power.
Roth & Rau has opened a technology center for the development of future-generation solar cells at the Swiss Institute for Microtechnology (EPFL/IMT), as part of a three-year agreement that the two organizations signed in May 2008. A Swiss subsidiary of Roth & Rau has been established in conjunction with the installation of the research line and siting of a team of scientists and engineers at IMT's Neuchâtel campus.
A sum of $500,000 CND has been granted by the National Research Council (NRC) to Day4 Energy, the reportedly ailing module manufacturer. The Canadian Government's R&D organization granted the funding to allow further development of the Day4(R) Electrode platform, a set of cell manufacturing technologies that offer increased conversion efficiencies at lower cost.
