A specialist in wind power systems, Vestas will be venturing into solar as the design for its new North American headquarters in Portland, Oregon revealed a 112kW rooftop PV system that will power 12% of the company’s new building. SolarWorld will provide panels for the Vestas’ headquarters, a historic building, which is expected to pursue LEED Platinum certification once various environmentally friendly features are completed.
Imperial Valley Solar Company 1, a subsidiary of SunPeak Solar, received a US$77.4 million loan agreement from the North American Development Bank (NADB), which will go towards the construction of a 23MW solar power plant in Niland, California. Fixed-tilt polycrystalline silicon PV modules will be installed over a 123 acres located in the Imperial Irrigation District (IID). The Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC) certified the solar project on June 6.
A new green initiative in Brazil, titled Sistema de Energia Renovavel (SER), is planning to install 600MW of solar capacity throughout the country by 2020. SER hopes that within six years the new systems, the first of which is scheduled to come online next year, will provide electricity at prices comparable to rival energy sources.
Acciona Energy has activated its new Palma del Río I solar thermal plant in Cordoba, Spain. The 50MW system is comprised of 792 solar collectors spanning 135 hectares and takes Acciona’s CSP portfolio in Spain to 200MW.
Spanish-based Gruppo Clavijo has commissioned a fixed structure, 33MW PV solar farm in Curbans, France. Installed on just over 321 acres of land in the south of France region, the €80 million investment is expected to supply 30,000 residents with energy.
Japan and cutting-edge technology have long gone hand in hand and therefore it is no surprise that Kyocera’s latest solar innovation, the Eco-Shell, is being launched in the Land of the Rising Sun.
LDK Solar has signed a 15MW multicrystalline module supply agreement with juwi Solar. The contract will see LDK deliver the modules to juwi between August and November 2011, to be used in one of juwi’s PV installations. juwi also has the option of requesting the delivery of a further 15MW of modules within this time period.
Q-Cells SE has sold its recently-completed 12MW Zerbst II solar power plant to the Berlin investment group MCG Management Capital. The system, which is situated on the site of a former military air base, took just six weeks to complete and makes up one-fifth of a huge 46MW solar park.
Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) has joined forces with Alexander & Baldwin (A&B) for the development of a 6MW utility-scale solar PV facility on Kauai’s south shore. A&B plans to have the project developed and operated by one of its subsidiaries and will sell the power produced by the plant to KIUC under a 20-year fixed PPA agreement.
Sandvika, Norway-based REC ASA has published its second-quarter financials for 2011, which show revenues of NOK 3,391 million, down 17% on the previous quarter. Significant weakening of the solar market led to a slowdown in demand for the company’s products, while polysilicon production operations are also under pressure from Chinese competitors.
