Ceradyne has completed its acquisition of VIOX, a specialty glass company based in Seattle, Washington. Over the past few years VIOX has seen around 70% of its sales come from solar glass products, which have been specifically formulated for polycrystalline silicon solar PV applications. Ceradyne bought VIOX with a US$27 million cash payment at closing, which also includes a post-closing adjustment in two months. Additionally, conditional payment of up to US$22 million may be paid if VIOX reaches certain sales diversification and earnings targets over a 30-month period after the closing.
LDK Solar, along with its polysilicon manufacturing subsidiary, has signed a definitive agreement with China Development Bank Capital Corporation, Excel Rise Holdings, Prosper East and an investment fund associated with another Chinese bank, where the investors will all subscribe to a collective US$240 million in series A redeemable convertible preferred shares of LDK Silicon & Chemical Technology. The wholly owned subsidiary of LDK Solar, contained in the Cayman Islands, will hold and operate LDK Solar’s polysilicon division once all PRC government approvals for foreign investments have been completed.
NuGen Capital Management and KDC Solar have come together for the formation of a joint venture, which will aim to develop, construct, own and operate commercial-scale behind-the-meter PV solar installations in New Jersey. The projects will range in size from 1MW to 10MW, with the first project being installed on White Rose Food’s distribution warehouse in Carteret, New Jersey.
Xtreme Power and Xcel Energy will cooperatively install a 1MW solar system at the Solar Technology Acceleration Center (SolarTAC) in order to gather operational data for energy storage combined with solar energy systems. Xtreme’s utility-scale energy storage Dynamic Power Resources (DPR) system will be used on the project to conduct various energy storage and grid asset functions, which include output smoothing, time shifting and forecast error mitigation.
NuGen Capital Management and KDC Solar have selected Solar Power to develop their joint venture: the White Rose distribution warehouse rooftop installation in Carteret, New Jersey. The 5MW rooftop system will be designed, engineered, and constructed by Solar Power which, under its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with NuGen and KDC Solar, will also monitor and service the solar plant once it is completed.
Just in time for the close of 2010, NanoMarkets is set to release its new report, “The Business Case for Building Integrated Photovoltaics,” the week of December 27, 2010, which discusses the predicament it feels the PV industry is facing and the possibility that building-integrated PV (BIPV) has to save what NanoMarkets deems as a rather dismal outlook for the PV industry.
GCL-Poly Energy Holdings and Solarfun Power Holdings have mutually entered into a long-term wafer and polysilicon supply contract where GCL-Poly will provide Solarfun with 2,500MW of wafer and polysilicon products from January 2011 until December 2015. Included in the contract signed between the two companies is a price adjustment mechanism.
CSIRO and Dyesol have completed the first stage of their joint project developing higher performance dyes for dye solar cells (DSC). The first six months of the programme has seen Dyesol build a research-scale assembly and testing facility at CSIRO’s Newcastle-based centre, in south-east Australia.
Renewable energy project developer Sustainable Energy Capital Partners (SECP) has formed a joint venture partnership with Korean independent power producer Posco Power to develop and build a 300MW photovoltaic power plant in Boulder City, Nevada. Global engineering/construction/management services firm Parsons has also signed on to the project.
Etrion has completed its 1MW Ruffano solar park in Puglia, Italy. The solar park will generate over 1.7 million kilowatt hours and is assisted by Italy’s 2010 feed-in-tariff of €.346 per kWh and a market price of around €0.08 per kWh.
