Power Plants

The US Energy Department and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are to develop a US$135 million test centre in Colorado for new utility-scale clean energy grid integration technologies.

German manufacturer Hanwha Q CELLS is to supply modules to what is said to be Japan’s largest solar power plant.

UEM, the grid operator and power utility company of the French city of Metz, has commissioned a 4.5MW solar park in La Fare-les-Oliviers, a village near Aix-en-Provence in the south of the country built by Conergy.

Suntech Power Holdings claims to have sourced PV module components outside China to avoid anti-dumping duties imposed on the company by the European Commission of 48.6%.

Reduced German feed-in tariffs and rising module prices due to the impact of the EU anti-dumping investigation and preliminary duties mean the free-field PV project business in Germany is dead, according to major project developer, juwi.

Photovoltaics and semiconductor specialist materials provider Voltaix is be acquired by Air Liquide for an undisclosed sum.

Having established the PV cell performance characterization laboratory at NREL in 1980 and devoted more than three decades to photovoltaic science, Dr. Keith Emery of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will receive the William R. Cherry Award at IEEE PVSC.

Martifer Solar has extended its services for its global customer base by integrating over 250 PV power plants into a new ‘Energy Portal’ to facilitate monitoring, service and maintenance operations for customers.

First Solar is to offer 8.5 million shares at US$46.00 per share potentially bringing in US$391 million of new capital to build PV power plants.

CPV manufacturer Soitec has announced the installation of a 25kW concentrator PV demonstration plant in the village of Usib near Rehoboth in central Namibia.