Plutonic Power and GE Energy Financial Services have agreed to buy three of First Solar’s power plants in Ontario, Canada. Permitting for the projects, which have a combined capacity of 50MW, is expected to take place this spring and construction scheduled to start in June.
NanoMarkets has published a new report claiming that novel encapsulation and substrate materials are the key to the long-term survival of organic photovoltaics (OPV) and dye-sensitized cell (DSC) photovoltaics. The report, titled 'Encapsulation and Flexible Substrates for Organic and Dye-Sensitized Photovoltaics', predicts that a US$1.3 billion encapsulation and substrate market will be possible by 2017, if manufacturers of these materials can offer products that will facilitate use of OPV and DSC technology into the building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) sector.
Ceradyne has completed its acquisition of VIOX, a specialty glass company based in Seattle, Washington. Over the past few years VIOX has seen around 70% of its sales come from solar glass products, which have been specifically formulated for polycrystalline silicon solar PV applications. Ceradyne bought VIOX with a US$27 million cash payment at closing, which also includes a post-closing adjustment in two months. Additionally, conditional payment of up to US$22 million may be paid if VIOX reaches certain sales diversification and earnings targets over a 30-month period after the closing.
After months of speculation surrounding the country’s solar feed-in tariff, Turkey has now made photovoltaic power generation subsidy payments law. Under the regulation, payments for renewable energy generation will be determined as dollar cent, as opposed to Euro cent, in Turkish Parliament.
LDK Solar, along with its polysilicon manufacturing subsidiary, has signed a definitive agreement with China Development Bank Capital Corporation, Excel Rise Holdings, Prosper East and an investment fund associated with another Chinese bank, where the investors will all subscribe to a collective US$240 million in series A redeemable convertible preferred shares of LDK Silicon & Chemical Technology. The wholly owned subsidiary of LDK Solar, contained in the Cayman Islands, will hold and operate LDK Solar’s polysilicon division once all PRC government approvals for foreign investments have been completed.
Chris Robine, who joined SPG Solar in 2010 as the company’s chief financial officer, has now accepted the position of SPG Solar’s chief executive officer. Prior to SPG, Robine was CFO of General Electric’s renewable energy division where he helped the division double its revenue. Additionally, Robine has previously served as a member on the board of PrimeStar.
PVA TePla has appointed Dr. Arno Knebelkamp as its chief technology officer and temporary deputy CEO. Knebelkamp, who was previously CEO at Vestolit GmbH, will also join the company’s management board.
In SolarTech’s continued effort to hasten the implementation of renewable solar energy projects on state and local levels, the company has made the industry’s first engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contract template for solar financing, which is anticipated to go hand in hand with the power purchase agreement (PPA) that was released in 2009.
After 30 years as principal scientist at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Gary Jorgensen is retiring to join SkyFuel as principal materials scientist. Amongst other achievements during his time at the NREL, Jorgensen co-invented ReflecTech Mirror Film, which used in SkyFuel's parabolic trough concentrating solar collector.
The European Commission has awarded Sovello AG €15.5 million of regional investment aid to help build its latest String Ribbon solar-module production facility in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany. When completed, the entire project will have received investment totalling €147 million and created 320 jobs in the region.
