Chinese PV firm Suntech Power Holdings faces more trouble in Italy after an Italian court reportedly filed a lawsuit against the company’s Global Solar Fund (GSF). The lawsuit alleges that the investment fund illegally built solar farms in the country in order to exploit Italy’s subsidies, Reuters has revealed.
Solar Universe Network and Sunrun entered a strategic partnership, which will bring Sunrun’s solar service to more US customers. The partnership will be offered to homeowners in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Oregon.
Westinghouse Solar and CBD Energy have formed a joint venture with an intent to design, engineer, procure and construct commercial PV projects in Italy. Westinghouse Solar will have a 25% stake, with the option to take up to a 50% stake, in the profits from CBD’s commercial project pipeline in Italy in exchange for an investment of US$1.5 million (with an option to invest an additional US$1.5 million).
Canadian Solar advised that the sale of its Canadian Solar 1 installation has been completed with the utility-scale power plant sold to Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners for US$48.4 million. Canadian Solar was the developer, EPC and construction financier for the project, which is built near the town of Napanee. The installation is connected to the grid and uses nearly 50,000 of the company’s CS6M modules.
Higher module shipments on the back of increasing focus on expanding its solar module business and building sales channels supported ReneSola producing better than expected second-quarter 2012 financial results. The company posted US$233 million in sales, up 10.2% from US$211.5 million in the prior quarter.
Updated: After much media speculation that South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group had been in negotiations to acquire PV manufacturer Q-Cells, a deal has been struck according to a brief statement issued late Sunday evening. However, the deal still requires the approval of creditors, which the insolvency administrator Henning Schorisch said would be sought at a meeting on August 29.
Xcel Energy, a US electricity and natural gas company, has announced an end to its Solar Rewards scheme. Xcel Energy was seeking approximately 4.5MW of generation, from systems less than or equal to 500kW; it received approximately three times that amount in applications in about 30 minutes after the program opened at 8a.m. last week. Acceptance of applications ended after an hour.
Owning to July’s communiqué that Italy had reached its €6 billion limit, bringing into force the mooted Conto Energia V, Italian energy agency (GSE) has opened the first six-month register for PV systems over 12kW. The register will open at 9am August 20 and close at midnight on September 18 and capped at €140 million.
In response to increased losses and deepening negative margins, Trina Solar has implemented a number of changes to its management structure in a bid to “increase the responsiveness and effectiveness of its revenue-based operations”. As a result, its operations are now divided into four regions, each with a regional leader which will report to Jifan Gao, chairman and CEO of Trina Solar.
