United Solar and Advanced Green Technologies (AGT) have finished work on a new 807kW system spanning six school rooftops in New York’s South Country School District. Each school will generate around 158,000 kWh of electricity per annum and save over US$25,000 in the process.
Standard Solar is calling its new 753kW carport PV system at Maryland’s Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) the largest PV system of its kind in Maryland and one of the biggest PV carport systems on the East Coast. Using a Protek Park PV canopy system, the solar installation will be built on top of the community college’s parking structure. Suniva will provide over 3,100 solar panels for the project, which is anticipated to generate around one million kilowatt hours of electricity in its first operational year.
BlueChip Energy (BCE), a fully-integrated solar energy provider for residential, commercial, government and utility applications, has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) to supply Progress Energy Florida with renewable solar photovoltaic power from the Sorrento Eagle Dunes Solar Farm, a 40 megawatt utility-scale solar PV facility the company is developing in Central Florida.
Kyocera Corporation have announced that 960-kilowatts (kW) of its solar modules (roughly 4,300 units) have been installed on the roof of the recently opened AEON Itami-Koya shopping center (operated by AEON Retail Co., Ltd.) in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.
Spire is launching a new customer service initiative where it will make its simulation test facilities and services available to PV system installers. The company has over 30 test facilities and runs the Advanced Technology center, which is said to help material developers, module manufacturers and research groups advance their technology. The technology center also features a complete module assembly line and a Spi-Sun Simulator 4600SLP.
OPEL Solar International, the joint venture between OPEL Solar and Ecotech Environmental Technology, has been awarded its first order, just over three months after its formation. The company will provide 5MW of its HCPV panels and dual axis trackers to one of China’s electric power companies. OPEL Solar International initially expected the order to be for 2MW, but looks at the doubled purchase order as a way for it to break into the HCPV market in East Asia. Deliveries should start in the second quarter of 2011 and be completed during 2012.
Sacramento City Council has approved SolarCity’s request to build a 1.9MW multi-site system in the city centre. When completed, the development will be the largest in Sacramento and generate 2.6 million kWh of electricity in the first year.
SunWize Systems has completed the first stage of its 4.45MW car park solar array. The system, situated on top of a Veteran’s Affairs (VA) medical center in Phoenix, Arizona, is one of the largest of its kind in the U.S. and is expected to be completed in July 2012.
Belectric and Sun & Life are staking their claim in what they call the largest solar power plant in Saudi Arabia. The two companies are partnering on a 10MW PV carport system at Dhahran’s North Park offices of Saudi Aramco. The large-scale power plant will cover all of the 4,500 parking spaces and feed into the public grid by the end of this year.
Spain’s Ministry for Industry has approved 923 new solar projects for Q1 2011, all of which will benefit from the current feed-in tariff rates. The 116MW of new installations have been endorsed just in time to avoid the government’s subsidy reductions that come into play from Q2.
