BrightSource Energy, Inc. has signed a contract with Siemens to purchase a steam turbine generator for BrightSource’s first 100MW plant at its Ivanpah Solar Power Complex in California’s Mojave Desert. Siemens will supply the 123MW fully solar-powered steam turbine generator, which claims to be the largest of its kind to date.
Q-Cells SE has been forced to make significant revisions to its financial and manufacturing forecasts for 2008 and 2009 due to the credit crisis creating restrictions on new solar projects. The world’s largest photovoltaics manufacturer said that customer push outs had increased at short notice. The large volumes as had been pushed out are virtually impossible to place with other customers at such short notice, leading to these significant effects on the company's revenue generation.
The solar photovoltaic manufacturer formerly known as EverQ has changed its name, plans to operate independently of its parent companies, and will delay its initial public offering until financial conditions improve, according to reports in CleanTech and various German media outlets. The newly branded company, Sovello, says it will cut its ties with Evergreen Solar, Q-Cells, and REC as sales more than double and its third manufacturing line nears production readiness.
Arise Technologies' solar PV silicon division has met the fourth major milestone for its polysilicon feedstock pilot plant project. The Canadian company said that it has finished the initial construction phase of the plant and that the pilot plant-scale silicon refining furnace, manufactured by Ebner Industrieofenbau, has also been completed and is operational.
Complementing the company’s installation of a turnkey PV module manufacturing line, Spire Corp. has been commissioned to supply US$54.9 million of solar cells to the Federal Prison Industries, Inc., also known as UNICOR, at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Otisville, New York. The aim is for the FCI Otisville inmates to be trained to use the module line, thereby preparing them for employment in the growing solar industry, while the modules manufactured at the plant will be used in government installations.
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland recently, major players in the solar industry gathered to meet with representatives from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to discuss the role of solar energy in the ongoing fight against climate change. Suntech’s Dr. Zhengrong Shi, Solarcentury’s Jeremy Leggett and Mike Ahearn of First Solar met with UNEP’s Executive Director Achim Steiner to propose the speeding up of policies implementation to encourage uptake of solar energy as a major player in greenhouse gas reduction.
San Diego-based Green Star Alternative Energy, Inc. has revealed that its recently acquired subsidiary Notos Solar d.o.o. has signed a letter of intent for the purchase of a 5MW turnkey thin-film PV manufacturing facility from Nanergy Hungary. With this move, Notos Solar d.o.o. is opening up the Serbian solar market as it has also secured the exclusive rights of the technology for use exclusively for the Republic of Serbia and Macedonia.
Plans for a 1GW PV power plant are underway in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, where the Al-Husseini Group, a diversified real estate, industrial and trading organization based in Amman, Jordan, and Amelio Solar plan to construct a 200MW thin-film PV module manufacturing plant over the space of three years, which will power the gigawatt-scale plant. The Jordan-based gigawatt plant, referred to as a “multi-year” project, will be designed by Amelio Solar and is expected to be completed by 2017.
NATCO International, Inc. has received independent an third party report verifying the performance of its Lassen Hybrid Solar Panel. The tests showed that up to 208V and over 2,000W of power output were supplied. The test has met satisfied requirements for NATCO to be able to complete the share transfer and license agreement with Lassen and its affiliates as arranged in the 26 November 2008 Form 8K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
IMS Research has released a report, which speculates that the global PV inverter market will double in size for 2008. Considering that the PV inverter market is still quite young and heavily depends on each country’s legislation, for the first time the market is expected to exceed $2 billion. Recent analysis shows the PV inverter market grew by 110% in the first nine months of 2008 with Europe accounting for 80% of worldwide revenue. Spain, Italy and Germany all saw excellent performances and high demand this year in the market.
