Power Plants

DayStar Technologies and Ontario, Canada’s, Grasshopper Energy entered into an LOI agreement in which DayStar will buy Grasshopper Energy in, an expected, 30 days. The purchase will be a 100% equity transaction. Grasshopper Energy is known for its turnkey solutions and is said to have one of the largest presences in Ontario. The company has over 100 microFiT contracts awarded to date worth CAN$50 million and additional microFiT and FiT applications exceeding 3,500 projects, which make a potential pipeline worth over CAN$100 million.

SMA Solar Technology issues a rather dire outlook for 2013, noting that because of the large subsidy cuts for PV, and the expected European downturn because of the cuts, the company’s managing board anticipates sales to drop to somewhere between €0.9 billion and €1.3 billion in 2013.

French BIPV specialist Tenesol is to lay off 70 of its employees in France.

The surge in solar activities in Japan is continuing with Tokyo-based Marubeni Corporation announcing plans to create a “mega-solar power business” by building an 81.5MW solar plant in Oita City, Japan.

Housing charity Habitat for Humanity is launching an initiative to provide solar installations for households in Ofunato, a Japanese city that was badly hit by last year’s tsunami.

At his keynote speech at Solar Power International in Florida this year, former President Bill Clinton put forward a proposal to energize the solar PV industry: “Americans need to know more than they now know”.

Global logistics company FedEx Express has unveiled plans to build a rooftop PV system on its distribution hub in Newark, New Jersey, US.

Munro Distributing has partnered with Sunrun to offer homeowners an affordable way to install solar on their homes.

Bloomberg has reported that JFE Holdings was awarded a contract from Mitsui & Co. and Tokio Marine Asset Management, which will see the company build three solar plants in Japan through subsidiaries. Four of JFE Steel’s units will provide for the Japanese solar plants with a combined 8.3MW capacity.

First Solar noted that, in its opinion, Australia is four years behind the US in the development of large solar farms. In a report by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, it was reported that the company is looking to help Australia build up its solar industry, specifically with a 10MW project that First Solar is partnering on with General Electric.