Japan’s Kagawa government in western Japan has announced that Kokusai Kogyo Holdings and Orix Corp will each build a solar power plant, to start operations in July and September. The plants will have a capacity of 2MW.
GCL-Poly Energy Holdings and Bank of America Merrill Lynch have closed the initial transaction to fund 15 solar power systems that will be developed by GCL-Poly’s US subsidiary, GCL Solar Energy. The 15 solar sites will total 5MW of solar energy and serve the Palmdale School District in southern California.
Applied Materials’ Varian VIISta ion implant platform will be using Praxair Electronics’ UpTime sub-atmospheric dopant gas delivery system. Praxair Electronics noted that it is also the preferred sub-atmospheric dopant supplier for the Solion implant tool developed by Varian Semiconductor Equipment.
Hydro One Networks, NEC and ON Semiconductor have joined Semiconductor Research Corporation’s (SRC) global Energy Research Initiative (ERI) joining established members such as Applied Materials, Bosch, First Solar and IBM. The now 10 member ERI will continue to focus on finding new materials, devices and methodologies for power control/management and energy collection, conversion and storage.
The CPV solar cell business segment of Emcore accounted for US$19.1 million or 51% of the company's total revenue in its FY2012 first quarter, representing a decline of US$2 million from the prior quarter. However, Emcore reported a CPV cell order backlog of approximately US$51.7 million, an increase from US$43.5 million in the prior quarter. The order increase was due to the first order from its China-based JV CPV module operations, Suncore, which is starting assembly operations to meet a US$100 million project contract in the country.
Borrego Solar has again secured funding for US$47 million from US Bank and East West Bank for solar energy projects in California, US. The fund will be used to build 6MW of installations for three school districts and two plants in Massachusetts – the largest of which is expected to be 4.7MW. The company said these projects are expected to create 400 local jobs and generate enough electricity to power nearly 2,000 homes.
Dow Corning announced that it had contracted Bardawil Group to distribute its silicon-based solar solutions for the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Bardawil will market and support Dow Corning’s solar products while additionally representing the company at strategic conferences and exhibitions in the specified region.
Mercury Solar Systems has completed the installation of a 3.6MW solar system, with over 12,000 solar panels, in Manalapan, one of the largest ground-mounted, grid-interconnected solar systems in New Jersey.
According to reports from Bloomberg, AES Gener, a division of AES Corp., is preparing to construct a US$572 million solar farm in northern Chile, which will help bring electricity to copper mines in the Atacama Desert. The company is pursuing a permit to build the farm in Chile’s Antogafasts region where, Bloomberg reports, BHP Billiton and state-owned Codelco, manage copper mines.
