Power Plants

Etrion has now completed the previously announced definitive sale and purchase agreements to acquire the equity in the first two phases of the SunPower Montalto di Castro solar park, for approximately €49 million. The acquisition of the 20MW first phase of the project was completed in August and the acquisition of the 8MW second phase was completed at the very end of September.

Global solar inverter shipments are expected to surpass 23.3 million units by 2014, up by a factor of nine from 2.6 million in 2010, according to a new report from iSuppli Corp. Revenue will subsequently increase to US$8.9 billion in 2014, up from US$5.3 billion in 2010. This would result in solar inverters sales becoming one of the highest-volume ruggedized electronic systems sold, according to report author Greg Sheppard. Despite such soaring demand, the average price per watt for inverters worldwide will decline by 13.5% this year. In particular, Asian suppliers are trying to drive prices down with lower costs, Sheppard noted, even though they have been challenged to deliver bankability.

India's new and renewable energy minister, Farooq Abdullah, has revealed that the government is targeting 1,000MW of solar power by 2013, 500MW of which will be solar photovoltaic and 500MW solar thermal. The first installation will begin in West Bengal, where a demo tidal wave power project of 100MW will be executed, shortly followed by switching 100 telecom towers from diesel to solar power for cooling, Abdullah said.

With approximately 15 entrants wanting to stake a claim in the emerging solar microinverter and DC-DC power optimization market, rapid growth is required to avoid failures. According to a new report from IMS Research, the market is forecasted to generate more than US$1.5 billion in revenues over the next five years with device shipments growing 100% per year, totalling more than 16 million units. As expected the key market will be residential, offering power output defence from shading and inverter failures, according to the market research firm.

High-purity materials supplier 5N Plus has signed a long-term supply agreement with cadmium-telluride thin-film module producer Abound Solar. Under the terms of the deal, 5N Plus will provide CdTe compounds to be used in the manufacturing of Abound's PV panels.

Recurrent Energy has signed agreements with Kaiser Permanente for the development of 15MW of solar power systems at several different locations across California. Recurrent will build, own, and operate 16 solar power systems installed across 15 Kaiser Permanente hospital and office rooftops, ground spaces and above existing ground-level parking spaces and garages.

Polysilicon, wafers and solar module prices all declined severely in 2009, according to a new report from iSuppli. On average, crystalline module prices dropped 37.8%, solar wafer prices fell by 50%, and polysilicon prices declined by 80%.

After significant polysilicon and wafer price declines in 2009, MEMC executives have become more upbeat about demand and price stability entering the first quarter of 2010 and beyond. In a conference call to discuss fourth quarter results, the company noted that capacity utilization of silicon wafer production was at approximately 80%, with a demand recovery underway in the semiconductor industry, enabling a firming in prices to that sector. In solar, price declines were said to have moderated and the company was now shipping wafers to 10 of the top 25 PV manufacturers, compared to having made shipments to only 2 solar customers at the beginning of 2009.

The UK feed-in tariff rates have now been finalized, offering its residents a financial incentive for producing renewable energy. The government has confirmed the proposed rate, which will begin to take effect from April 1, 2010.

After a fair amount of digging and the much needed help of our German correspondent we can now confirm that the reports of a 16-17% cut in feed-in tariff rate for Germany were true, and the cuts are to go ahead from April 1, 2010. Click here to see the analyst's thoughts on these cuts.