Solar industry business people are continuing to investment in the Middle East. Terra Nex, a wealth management company specializing in Middle East investment and Germany-based Middle East Best Select (MEBS) plan a US$2 billion integrated project to develop 400MW of solar technology in the oil and gas exporting country, including facilities to manufacture solar panels for Oman and for export.
Under a new partnership between eIQ Energy and Boots on the Roof, eIQ Energy has supplied a dozen of its vBoost converter modules to the Boots on the Roof solar training program. The partnership was initiated in January and will see eIQ’s technology featured in the school’s commercial PV construction training program as well as its commercial PV design course.
India-based, thin-film PV manufacturer Moser Baer has installed a 5MW solar farm, equivalent to powering 70,000 households, covering an area of 60 acres in Tinwari, Jodhpur district, India. This is part of the US$1 billion the company has promised the Indian states of Gujarat, Orissa, West Bengal and Rajasthan, for projects worth 300MW. The farm was built under the solar subsidy scheme, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). The opening ceremony was attended by the renewable energy minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Ashok Gehlot, chief minister of Rajasthan.
Citing an intensely competitive market environment, SMA Solar Technology, the leading PV inverter manufacturer, reported preliminary full-year financial results of €1.7 billion in sales for 2011. SMA Solar had previously cut €200 million from its previous forecast of €1.9 billion to €1.7 billion, with results therefore coming in at the lowered figure. SMA Solar reported 2010 sales of €1.9 billion. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were reported as being more than €240 million.
The first major renewable energy auction in Africa, undertaken by the Energy Department of South Africa saw Gestamp Solar, photovoltaic solar division of Gestamp Renewables win the opportunity to build 2 PV projects with a total power of 30MW in Northern Cape, South Africa.
The tragic death of Amonix CEO Brian Robertson late last year has led to Jan van Dokkum, an executive with venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, becoming interim CEO of the concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar systems company. The Board of Directors at Amonix said it had enlisted an executive search firm and has established a search committee for the selection and appointment of a new CEO.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) said it had added more than 220MW of wind and solar power to its generation mix in 2011, while signing contracts for future delivery of 463MW of new renewable power. PG&E deployed 185MW of solar power in 2011 and said it had secured signed contracts for 200 MW of new solar power in coming years.
As the Middle-East becomes an emerging solar market, more companies are set to seek business opportunities in the region. PV wholesaler and project developer, Antaris Solar is latest to announce it has opened trading posts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar. Antaris Solar already operates in Italy, France, the United Kingdom and the USA.
Construction has begun of the initial stage of the 2MW CPV solar plant in Mildura, Victoria. The 2MW plant will serve as a form of demonstration facility for what the developers are planning could eventually be a 100MW solar farm by 2016. As equipment supplier to the facility, Solar Systems will provide its "Dense Array" CPV technology which is said to use triple-junction solar cells to yield a 40% conversion efficiency.
Thin-film solar cells manufacturer AQT Solar has received US$18.7 million from investors to double production at its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, US. Details of the investors have not been disclosed.
