An industry official reported to the South China Morning Post that Beijing is expected to enact subsidized prices for solar power production as soon as late summer. After looking at the policies of developed nations, the National Energy Commission of the National Development and Reform Commission has taken preliminary steps to enact subsidized rates for solar energy.
China Sunergy Co., Ltd. has signed a 6-year framework agreement with Renergies Italia for delivery of 53MW of solar cells. The framework agreement includes a 3MW solar cell sales contract for delivery during 2009. The remaining 50MW will be conveyed to the Italian module manufacturer between 2010 and 2014, with each year seeing between 5 and 15MW of solar cells changing hands.
Taiwan's government reports that it has passed a bill on renewable energy that is expected to attract Taiwan $30 billion (US $937 million) worth of investment. Parliament approved the measure on 13 June 2009, which is aimed at adding between 6,500 and 10,000MW of installed energy from renewable to Taiwan’s current 2,287MW (5.8%) over the next 20 years.
NV Energy and American Capital Energy (ACE) announced a long-term power purchase agreement to divvy the sales of energy produced from 20MW (DC) solar power plant that to be constructed by mid-2010 near Searchlight, Nevada, 55 miles south of Las Vegas. Other terms of the power purchase agreement were not disclosed.
Spire Corporation and Gloria Solar of Tainan, Taiwan announced today that they have reached an agreement to liquidate their Joint Venture, Gloria Spire Solar (GSS), which performed PV systems integration within the United States.
The largest semiconductor foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), said it would be targeting revenue from the solar and LED industries of US$2 billion per annum by 2018 as the company shuffles senior management to address the ‘green energy’ markets, according to news reports. PV-Tech recently reported rumours that TSMC was contemplating a move into solar.
As the number and size of utility-scale photovoltaic plants increases, greater emphasis will be placed on managing and monitoring PV power plants to ensure optimum performance and the required ROI. SunEdison, North America’s largest solar energy services provider is doing just that with the announcement that it has opened the first dedicated Renewable Operations Center (ROC), located in SunEdison offices at the McClellan Air Force hangar. The ROC is designed as the hub for SunEdison solar fleet performance data analysis, PV solar energy system monitoring, remote diagnostics, and automated service dispatch.
Acting as financier, and engineering, procurement and construction services provider, Scheuten Solar has signed up to work with Solesa Green Power for the development and maintenance of several PV power plants in Italy, totaling at least 5MWp per annum.
An official announcement that will influence Greece’s future potential in the PV industry was released by the Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (HELAPCO), which outlines a new incentives program for small rooftop applications up to 10kWp. It is hoped that this is the first of several such announcements by HELAPCO, with this small-scale incentive acting to spur on solar energy demand in the country.
As part of a planned 41MW of multiple 1MW type solar plants expected to begin construction in Italy in 2009, Enerqos one of the countries largest turnkey suppliers of solar systems and plants is to begin construction of four, 1MW solar plants for European merchant bank, NextEnergy Capital.
