Fraunhofer Gesellschaft has signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company – representing the Masdar City Project – that aims to embark on a collaborative deal to establish renewable energy projects for the region. Masdar City will be located on an area of six square kilometres approximately 30 kilometres east of Abu Dhabi, and is being designed to be a carbon-neutral city, powered entirely by renewable energy sources.
Bolstering its finances ahead of a major technology transition, Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. has secured a convertible loan agreement worth $50 million with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group. Suntech has earmarked the funds for debt refinancing and to support the company’s transition to the Pluto technology approach, which is based on the PERL (passivated emitter with rear locally diffused) cell technology and has demonstrated world-record lab efficiencies of 25%.
Semilab, one of the world's largest metrology companies, has named Dr. Chris Moore as President and CEO of Semilab USA. This decision gives Moore responsibility for strategic direction and operations of all Semilab divisions within the US.
A new program has been established by the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar to overcome the often lengthy (more than two years) and not always successful applications to use public land in desert regions, which include Nevada, Arizona, and parts of California. Key aspects of the program include ‘prime zones,’ new permitting offices to speed up permitting and the funding of environmental studies in the designated areas.
Building on his experience in the equipment sales industry, Robin Bancroft, a former European agent for Baccini, has joined DEK Solar as Alternative Energies Business Development Manager for Western Europe. Mr. Bancroft brings several years of sales and management experience to the company, and will be shouldered with the responsibility of managing market development of DEK’s solar metallization lines.
SunPower and Wells Fargo have joined together in a new collaborative effort to fund as much as $100 million in SunPower commercial-scale solar photovoltaic systems. Under the financing program, the partners say that SunPower will sign power purchase agreements (PPAs) with qualified customers, and the bank will finance the PV systems, which will be designed, built, operated, and maintained by the solar company.
Mercury Solar Systems, a leading solar integrator in the United States, has announced that it has acquired K-Star Solar, leading residential solar installer of Long Island.
Fulfilling half of the existing 60MW sales agreement between the two companies, Canadian Solar has announced that it has been tapped for 30MW of solar modules from Systaic AG for delivery to Spain. Added to this order is company’s recent signing or reconfirming of sales contracts or extensions that bring the company’s recent sales total to 120MW.
In a political victory for President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and their allies in Congress, one of the strongest pieces of energy and environmental legislation in American history narrowly won passage in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday. After a flurry of last-minute intense lobbying and political deal-making, HR 2454--the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES)--passed by a close 219-212 tally, which included 44 Democrats voting against the measure and 8 Republicans voting in favor of it. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to go through some potentially major revisions and may have a tough time being approved. President Barack Obama and solar industry leaders praised the U.S. House’s passage of ACES.
With plans to achieve 12% conversion efficiencies and ramp a new 90MWp thin film plant next year, Q-Cells SE has decided to increase its share ownership in copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) start-up Solibro GmbH. Q-Cells said that it would increase its share from 67.5% to 100%, issuing new Q-Cells shares to pay for the transaction. Solibro will then become a wholly owned subsidiary.
