The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has dedicated a 1-MW photovoltaic power station at the Robert A. Skinner Water Treatment Plant in Riverside County. The 10-acre solar field, which was built by SunPower, will generate about 2.4 million KW-hours of electricity, which will be equivalent to about 25% of the annual power needs of the facility.
The homegrown Russian solar photovoltaic industry appears on the verge of adding significant manufacturing capacity after news that that the Supervisory Council of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies, Rusnano, has approved the corporation's participation in a project to build a million-module-per year, 120-MW panel factory using micromorph-silicon thin-film PV technology provided by Oerlikon Solar.
BTU International has hired industry veteran Jan-Paul van Maaren as its new VP of marketing. He will report directly to company chairman/CEO Paul van der Wansem. Van Maaren is charged with all of BTU's strategic marketing and marketing communications activities, with an initial focus on the firm's solar markets.
Spire has signed up three new companies to represent the solar equipment and turnkey line manufacturer's interests in various parts of the globe: Servo Dynamics in China, Energy Control Systems for Pakistan, and PV Middle East for the Gulf Arab States, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates."
The organisers of the International Solar Technology Awards today revealed the shortlist of nominees for the inaugural Cell Awards. The category nominees for the eight International Solar Technology Award are...
Solar-cell maker Suniva has bought a crack detection system from Ultrasonic Technologies. The Norcross, GA-based manufacturer will use the tool, equipped with fully automatic functions, for incoming quality control of silicon wafers as well as final inspection of its monocrystalline silicon solar cells.
Canadian mining company Semafo said that a partnership with the government of Burkina Faso has been established, with the purpose of conducting a prefeasibility study to explore the possible construction of a 20-MW solar power station in the West African country.
According to Samuel Yang, CEO of JA Solar, the first quarter of 2009 was the ‘most challenging quarter’ the company has faced since its formation in 2005. Revenue in the first quarter of 2009 was US$33.9 million a 79.4% decline compared to US$143.3 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2008. The company made a loss of $20.9 million in the quarter due to lower than expected sales and higher operating costs.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will gain a new member in the form of Australia, increasing the body's influence as the Rudd Government plans to invest approximately AS$4.5 billion on renewable and clean energy initiatives. A key boost to solar has also been planned, which will see AS$1.6 billion spent on projects to generate 1GW and above of energy starting in 2010. The Rudd Government said it was committed to ensuring that 20% of Australia's electricity...
Solar integrator Inovateus Solar has announced its plans to install at least 10MW of Uni-Solar modules in the next three years. The company has been a partner of Uni-Solar for the past three years and expressed its intention to install approximately 25MW over the next three years, including the recently announced 10MW.
