In a significant move by EDF Energies Nouvelles to boost its solar energy portfolio, the renewable energy producer has secured new project finance that is underpinned by a €500 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). EIB is financing 50% of planned projects in both France and Italy through 2012, while commercial banks will support each project with the other 50% of project finance required. EDF is exclusively using First Solar’s CdTe thin film modules for the €1 billion of projects over the next 2-years.
eSolar has named John Van Scoter as CEO. Van Scoter comes to the company with 25 years of experience in developing and implementing global market strategies for up-and-coming technologies.Scoter will work on eSolar's Board of Directors immediately and will assume his position as CEO on February 1, 2010.
Advanced Energy Industries' Solaron PV inverters have been commissioned for Colorado State University's (CSU) 2MW solar power plant at its Foothills Campus. The Solaron products were selected for their high efficiency rating.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that plans for a 970-acre solar PV farm near the Salton Sea in southeastern California have been shelved because of cost concerns. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power made the move at the same time that City Council members indicated they were not going to back the project. The 55MW (AC) Niland project, announced in August, was to have been designed, engineered, and built by First Solar and equipped with the thin-film PV company's CdTe modules.
In a significant turnaround compared to the first half of 2009, solar module manufacturer Solon said that it was seeing strong demand from the German market, resulting in its production plants in Germany now running at full capacity. Solon’s factory in Berlin has a capacity of 60MW, while the second plant in Greifswald has a capacity of 200MW. Without giving exact guidance, Solon said that revenue in the months of October and November has already surpassed the third quarter of 2009. Solon posted net revenue of €218.4 million in 3Q09.
Professor Utz Claassen has been appointed CEO of Solar Millennium. The decision was reached following a meeting of the supervisory board held earlier this month. Claassen will begin in the new role on the first of January.
Since announcing the project in September, SunPower has finished the first phase of Italy’s largest solar power plant in Montalto di Castro. Construction of the €120 million, 24MW plant was completed in eight months and was connected to the grid on November 30, several weeks ahead of schedule. The Montalto di Castro plant uses 78,720 SunPower solar panels as well as its tracker systems. The project is being built for SunRay Renewable Energy
Possibly the largest ever dichlorosilane (DCS) redistribution process (RDR) project has been successfully completed by Dynamic Engineering (DEI) for GCL Solar’s polysilicon plant. The RDR project for GCL was designed to process 10,000 mta of DCS, which eliminates the byproduct through conversion of DCS to trichlorosilane (TCS). GCL Solar is planning to expand polysilicon production to 18,000 MTA by end of 2009 and 21,000 MTA by end of 2010.
The Florida Public Service Commission has approved Tampa Electric's contract to purchase solar power supplied by the Florida Solar I project, a proposed 25MW solar electric generating station, for a 25-year period beginning in 2011. The system will be developed, built, and operated by Energy 5.0 on a 350-acre site in Polk County.
SunPower’s internal investigation into unsubstantiated accounting entries at its Philippine manufacturing base has made progress, according to the company. The discrepancies were announced in November 2009 and concerned the inclusion of some figures on the financial records for 2009 that may have been intended for inclusion on the 2008 books.
