Power Plants

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.

SolarWorld noted that its large-scale system business expansion has been successful thus far with the company pointing to 33MW of total power being connected to the grid in Germany during Q2 2012. The company connected five solar farms in commercial and industrial areas in the Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The farms will supply over 30 million kWh of power per year.

On the back of a two-day blackout in India which caused tragedy, chaos and loss of face at the end of July, Bloomberg has revealed that US solar giant First Solar is drawing out plans to develop solar farms in India as repeated power outages spur on demand for solar power.

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.

Canadian Solar and its French PV integrator partner Mecosun have achieved Pass’Innovation certification from the French Centre Scientifique et Technique du Batiment (CTSB).The testing confirms Canadian Solar’s PV panels integration with Mecosun’s MV€ system and aims to enable attainment of insurances and funding from French government authorities.

Ingenostrum, a Spanish developer of PV projects, is planning to build another large-scale solar power plant in Antofagasta, Chile, Photon has revealed.

Cumulative installed PV capacity in France reached 3.28GW in the second quarter of 2012, up by 9.2% compared with the first quarter of this year, according to statistics from French grid operators ErDF and EDF SEI.

Three months of deliberations has resulted in the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) finding six US renewable energy initiatives guilty of flouting World Trade Organization laws. MOFCOM is dictating it will take necessary measures to force the US to cancel these initiatives in order to bring it inline with WTO statute.

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.