EDF Energies Nouvelles has commissioned two solar photovoltaic power plants in Italy with a combined capacity of 26.1MWp. The first plant, located in Loreo, northern Italy will be a 12.6MWp ground-based project. The second, 13.5MWp facility is to be constructed in Priolo, in the south of the country. Both plants will utilize thin-film panels supplied by First Solar.
Benjamin Moore and Constellation Energy are on the verge of completing a new solar power system that is expected to generate 68% of the electricity required to power Benjamin Moore's 80,000 square foot research and development facility in Flanders, New Jersey. The 1.7MW plant, which comprises of 8,600 crystalline PV solar panels and can generate 2,230,000kW hours of electricity per annum, is expected to be operational by the end of the year and will reduce the company's greenhouse gas emissions by 1,600 metric tonnes.
Sustained strong demand has led solar wafer producer, PV Crystalox Solar to publically provide a longer-range insight into its capacity expansion plans through to the end of 2012.
Foster Wheeler will design and supply equipment for the planned 100MW Shams-1 solar power plant at Madinat Zayed, United Arab Emirates. The plant, located just outside Abu Dhabi, will receive the equipment in the third quarter of 2011.
Israel's National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau has signed the first power purchase agreement (PPA) for renewable energy in the country's history, with Ketura Sun, the joint venture between Arava Solar Power Company (APC) and Kibbutz Ketura, which is developing a 4.9MW plant in the southern Arava near Eilat. The agreement, which will stretch over 20 years, is said to be worth NIS 250 million.
Southern California Edison has signed 20 contracts with six different independent power producer firms for nearly 240MW (AC) of solar photovoltaic systems to be deployed close to major transmission lines in various parts of the utility’s service areas in Southern California.
GCL Solar Energy and SolarReserve have agreed to enter into a joint venture towards the development, building and operation of solar PV facilities in the U.S. The joint venture, titled GCL-SR Solar Energy, has a 1,100MW portfolio of PV development projects, which range in size from 5MW to 20MW at 40 different sites across the United States. Construction is anticipated to start on up to 400MW of PV projects in the near future.
