Commercial operation has begun at California’s largest solar power project after NRG Solar and Eurus Energy America activated their 45MW Avenal Solar Generating Facility in Kings County. The facility was developed by Eurus and the electricity produced will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) under separate 20-year power purchase agreements.
The continued construction and eventual interconnection of what will be the world’s largest solar PV power plant now seems assured. The US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office has finalized a $967 million loan guarantee for the 290MW (AC) Agua Caliente solar project in Arizona, thus triggering the purchase close of the project by NRG Energy from First Solar. The plant could start generating electricity for PG&E as early as the end of this year.
China-based PV cell and module manufacturer, Realforce Power Co has entered into a long-term wafer supply deal with GCL-Poly. Under the supply contract, GCL-Poly is providing a total of 4,200MW of solar wafer products starting from July 2011 to December 2016. A price adjustment mechanism is included in the contract, according to the wafer producer. GCL-Poly has provided wafers to the 3-year old start-up for some time.
ReneSola said it has progressed on two manufacturing fronts, with the start of trial production of its in-house steel wire used for slicing solar wafers and the development of a new generation of higher capacity casting furnaces.
One of the largest solar PV power plants in North America will be expanded, nearly quadrupling its generating capacity in a few years. Pacific Gas and Electric and Sempra Generation have signed a 25-year contract for a 150MW (AC) expansion of Sempra Generation’s Copper Mountain Solar complex in Boulder City, NV. First Solar will provide millions of ground-mounted thin-film CdTe panels and serve as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the 1100-acre project.
Despite current weakness in solar related equipment spending, due to weak demand for PV modules in the first half of the year and a longer than expected inventory build, GT Solar posted first quarter financial year revenue of US$231.1 million, compared to US$271.6 million last quarter and up 71% from the US$135.2 million of revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2011. Record order backlog stood at US$2.3 billion.
Phoenix Solar Singapore has placed an order with Schott Solar for 67,000 PV modules, equivalent to approximately 16MW for two projects being developed near Bangkok, Thailand since June, 2011. The contract on supplying these modules was said to have been negotiated at this year’s Intersolar Europe. The two installations are expected to go into operation by the end of the year.
Not be outdone by rivals such as Yingli Green in the utility-scale PV power plant business in China, Trina Solar has secured a 30MW module supply agreement with Huanghe Hydropower Development Co. Huanghe Hydropower is planning two ground-mounted solar projects in China's Qinghai Province, of which delivery is expected to start from August and continue through October of this year.
A US$50 million fund is up for grabs by the US Department of Energy to domestic PV manufacturers wanting to take solar technology from the lab to the fab to help restore the United States as being at the forefront of solar manufacturing. The funding program is the second solar Photovoltaic Manufacturing Initiative (PVMI) initiative, dubbed SUNPATH, which stands for Scaling Up Nascent PV At Home.
