The Solar Trust of America has formed a joint venture with SolarHybrid as it looks to establish itself in the solar industry. The new company, SolarHybrid of America, has already signed a letter of intent to establish a range of utility-scale projects in North America. This portfolio will include stand-alone systems, as well as projects incorporating concentrated solar power (CSP).
Bentek Solar has received ETL listing to UL 1741 and CSA 22.2 certification for its circuit breaker recombiners for commercial and utilty-scale PV solar power systems. The San Jose-based balance of systems design and manufacturing firm said it has shipped more than 100MW recombiner products to several North American customers.
Natcore Technology scientists working at Ohio State University have continued to make progress on the development of the company's liquid-phase deposition (LPD) process, demonstrating how it can be used to apply an antireflective coating to textured solar cells as well as standard planar cells. The company said this could help open the door for the industry to achieve even further wafer thickness reductions by eliminating the thermal vacuum AR coating process.
Later this year, DuPont Microcircuit Materials (MCM) is expecting to commercially launch a new version of its Solamet brand of PV metallization pastes that are claimed to significantly reduce the silver (Ag) content. MCM plans a new product that will reduce the silver content by 10%, having accelerated development efforts that should at a later time see a 20% reduction in silver content, all designed to be near drop-in replacements for current products.
3S Photovoltaics, a division of Meyer Burger Technology, Sputnik Engineering and BE Netz have partnered for the development of Switzerland’s Umwelt Arena. Located in the town of Spreitenbach, near Zurich, the building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) project covers over 57,048 square feet of the arena’s rooftop and holds the possibility of generating 540,000kWh of solar energy every year.
Georgia Power has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for up to 1MW of solar PV energy projects that will be used as part of the company’s Green Energy program. Georgia Power is looking for solar PV systems that are at least 100kW and under a contract term of 10 years. The company will admit bids up to 15 cents per kWh including interconnection costs. Solar energy for the RFP is required on or before June 1, 2012.
Dow Corning veteran Robert Hansen, current company president, has been elected as the company’s new CEO, effective immediately. Hansen has been with Dow Corning for 29 years and was appointed as president of the company in November 2010. Dow Corning noted that Hansen will continue to serve as president, in addition to his role as CEO and that Stephanie Burns will remain chairman of the board of directors. “As chairman, I will remain deeply engaged providing counsel and advice on the company’s business strategy, as well as support to Bob as he transitions into his new role and I prepare for retirement,” remarked Burns.
NJR Clean Energy Ventures (NJRCEV), a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources (NJR), has closed on a 21-year lease with the Village at Manalapan Solar for 13-acres of land in Manalapan, New Jersey. NJRCEV intends to develop a 3.6MW, US$18 million ground-mounted solar system at the New Jersey site, which will service the wholesale electric market. This is NJRCEV’s first ground-mounted solar installation, which has a completion and in-service date for sometime this fall.
A massive 150MW PV project to be built in Arizona by Zachry Industrial will use Advanced Energy Industries (AE) ‘Solaron’ PV inverters and its ‘SafeGuard’ service program. The project would be one of the largest of its kind so far built in the US and is slated to begin construction in mid-2011 with completion in 2013. AE is also to be the inverter supplier at a 35MW project in California with Cupertino Electric.
Energy firm, Constellation Energy is to acquire ground-mounted PV power plants at multiple sites being built by Belectric in Sacramento, California. The projects, which are expected to be commercially operational by the end of 2011, will use 81,000 First Solar CdTe thin-film modules, totals 30MW (DC) of solar generation. Financial terms were not disclosed.
