The backlash to the U.K. Government’s decision to launch a comprehensive review of its feed-in tariff on Monday has begun. Dissenting voices are becoming increasingly audible, with ministers publically bemoaning the coalition’s decision and airing fears about its long-term impact on the solar industry.
Integrated U.K. PV firm Sundog Energy has hired Bill Roberts as its new managing director and reshuffled the rest of its management team. Roberts will take over the managing director role from Sundog’s founder Martin Cotterell, who has moved into the role of chairman and technical director.
Mark Roe, formerly of Apple, has joined SolarCity as its new vice president of operations. During his time at Apple Roe was senior director of worldwide service; a position which saw him manage global service operations for new product introduction, technical training, field support and feedback, service engineering and Apple Retail service among other functions.
John McLane has accepted the president position with GCube Insurance Services, a worldwide insurance provider for the renewable energy arena. McLane was named one of the top five energy insurance brokers in the U.S. by Risk & Insurance Magazine in 2006 and will rely on his 30-year background in insurance and risk financing programs for utility scale renewable energy projects to guide him in his new position.
Taiwan-based solar cell producer Neo Solar Power (NSP) has posted its 10th consecutive month of increased revenue, reaching a new record high of approximately US$84.1 million (NT $2.44 billion) for January, which represented a 5.74% increase month-over-month, and 150.06% year-over-year. NSP has raised its capacity expansion target to 1.3GW in 2011, up from the 1.2GW previously guided.
A twenty-year veteran in the electric utility and electric equipment manufacturing industry, Dr. Ali Chowdhury, is the new vice president of transmission and interconnection planning for 8minutenergy Renewables. In his new role, Chowdhury will oversee the development and business features necessary to bring solar PV projects to their full realization in a swift period of time.
Preliminary financial results from SolarWorld show the integrated module manufacturer posted revenue of €1.3 billion in 2010, a 29% increase over the previous year, when revenue of €1.01 billion was reported. Shipments of wafers and solar modules also increased over the previous year, reaching 819MW, up 42% over figures logged in 2009 when shipments reached 578MW.
A sudden rise in the number of solar power installations in Italy is being investigated by the government over fears of feed-in tariff (FiT) fraud, according to Industry Minister Paolo Romani.
Sungevity has appointed Mac Irvin as the company’s new chief financial officer. With over 20 years of experience in equity investments, fundraising, leasing and other structured transactions for domestic and international markets, Irvin will be leading Sungevity in its corporate finance and accounting activities as well as acquiring project financing for their solar leasing product.
Founder and President Emeritus of SunPower, Richard Swanson, has been selected as the recipient for the 2011 Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit. The honor comes with a cash award of US$50,000, which is funded by the Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit Trust. The Medal is given every two years to an individual that has made ground-breaking contributions towards the promotion of solar energy through research, development or economic enterprise or to an individual that has proven themselves with valuable and enduring contributions to the solar energy field.
