IKEA teams up with REC Solar again to construct a now operational, 128,000ft2 PV array, consisting of a 1,026kW system and built with 4,186 panels. IKEA West Chester’s program will produce approximately 1,334,300kWh of clean electricity annually, the equivalent of reducing 1,014 tons of CO2, eliminating the emissions of 180 cars or powering 115 homes yearly.
EnterSolar has finished a 228kW solar PV system for Ontel Productions New Jersey headquarters. The rooftop system was officially placed into service in December 2011 and takes advantage of several renewable energy incentives, including the Section 48 Investment Tax Credit, the PSE&G Solar Loan Program and the Bonus Depreciation benefits for solar projects.
Deutsche Bank’s 50-floor, 745-foot-tall skyscraper at 60 Wall Street, Manhattan, New York now features a 122.4kW solar system. Though claimed to be tallest PV system installed in the world to date, several installations in the Alps from the last few years lay a similar claim, including ‘Mountain Crystal,’ designed and built by the Swiss Federal Technical University in Zurich (ETH), which is located 2,883m above sea level.
REC Solar and KIUC recently held a kick-off meeting with Homestead Community Development Corporation (HCDC) in order to initiate the next steps of the 12MW solar project the companies will be installing on Hawaiian Homelands in Anahola on the northeast side of Kauai. REC Solar won the contract for the project in December, marking it as the second utility-scale project the company has developed for KIUC.
JinkoSolar has announced that it has connected China Guangdong Nuclear Solar Energy Development’s 18MW PV power plant to China’s grid. The plant, located in Dunhuang, Gansu Province in west China, consists of 76,000 of JinkoSolar’s modules on a plot area of 400,000m2.
MEMC has issued a statement of clarification in regard to its recent release that appeared to claim that its parent company, SunEdison, has plans to establish solar projects in Japan in the near future. Media reports’ assumptions that there are concrete plans for Japanese projects have been refuted by MEMC, which cites “uncertain project economics” and a lack of government incentives for the company’s ambiguity on its plans for the country.
In spite of reports at the beginning of January about Indian project developers campaigning for extensions on deadlines for commissioning solar projects, GMR Energy has announced the completion of a 25MW grid-interactive solar power project.
Having placed greater emphasis on its project business as part of its restructuring efforts, MEMC, via its subsidiary, SunEdison, is reported to be planning a major move to become a key project developer in Japan. The reports claim that the company is in discussions with provincial authorities for PV projects totalling 1GW with an investment of US$4.6 billion over a 5-year period.
Following a successful trial project in 2010, Brussels Airport has now installed 7,220 monocrystalline solar panels to its logistics building at Brucargo West. With a total capacity of 1.7MWp and an annual energy production of 1,500MWh, this output is comparable to the annual energy consumption of about 450 families. The energy produced is injected straight into the airport’s power grid and will cover about 1% of the annual consumption of the airport.
BlueChip Energy has announced that the Commission of the City of Eustis, Lake County, US, authorized the mayor to execute a commercial lease with the company for 300 acres of land to be developed into a 60MW solar farm. The property, owned by the city, was use for as a wastewater spray field and is no longer needed.
