Power Plants

Europe’s climate and energy future hangs in the hands of politicians meeting in Brussels today and tomorrow.

Module manufacturer, REC Solar ASA has announced the closure of two supply agreements totalling 300MW.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is to provide US$53 million to fund 40 R&D projects aimed at slashing the cost of solar.

US thin-film giant First Solar’s Macho Springs project in New Mexico has become the first PV plant to receive the system-level ‘Quality Tested’ certification from testing institute VDE and Fraunhofer ISE.

SunEdison has been awarded 17.7MW of distributed generation across 30 PV projects in California, with investors in the company’s ‘yield co’ TerraForm Power likely to benefit.

Solar developer Standard Solar completed another project in New Mexico, with the completion of a 1.8MW, ground-mounted solar array for the Mora-San Miguel Electric Cooperative.

Siemens has installed microinverters and an electric vehicle (EV) charging station as its contribution to a ‘net zero energy’ house demonstration which is complete with solar panels fitted by 1st Light Energy.

UK renewables investor, TRIG, has said it will give more attention to rooftop solar due to cuts in funding for solar farms.

TuNur, a 2GW concentrated solar power (CSP) project along the same lines as the original Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii) plan, said the idea for Middle East and North African solar energy exports into Europe is still a valid and needed venture.

Japan’s Kyocera and energy service start-up Stem have become the latest partnership to offer integrated solar-plus-storage to commercial customers in the US, beginning with sales in three states including California.