All assets of GSF Capital and its senior manager, Javier Romero have been frozen by an Italian court over claims that Suntech and its chairman and CEO, Dr. Zhengrong Shi were victims of fraud. The court also appointed a manager to take control of the Fund, though Suntech did not provide further insight into how the affair happened.
After entering discussions concerning two PPAs, Corporación Dominicana de Empresas Eléctricas Estatales (CDEEE) has signed on the dotted line enabling the state-owned utility to purchase output from two 58MW PV projects in the Dominican Republic.
The government of the state of Gujarat in India has confirmed it is exploring the possibility of setting up a 1,000MW solar power project in conjunction with the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Gujarat estimates that the project could cost around Rs 8 to 9 crore per MW, therefore, the 1,000MW project could cost anywhere between Rs 8,000 to 9,000 crore.
The US residential solar lease market remains highly competitive with a new deal struck by SunPower to access US$325 million in new finance from 2-major investment banks, Citi and Credit Suisse. The new financing comes soon after major competitors in the third party leasing market, SunCity and Sunrun received significant new funding from Credit Suisse to the tune of a combined US$300 million in late July, 2012.
Installation of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (Ivanpah SEGS) worth US$2.2 billion is 50% complete, according to an announcement by NRG Energy, Google, BrightSource Energy and construction partner Bechtel.
Conergy has successfully completed the installation of its 1.8MW solar project at Aqua Pennsylvania’s Pickering water treatment facility. The Aqua Pickering Solar Farm produces 2.3kWh of peak-time energy per year and is expected to generate nearly 50,0000MWh of solar electricity over its lifetime.
Major restructuring efforts at First Solar took a backseat during the company’s second quarter conference call as management focused on a significant increase in its PV project pipeline. First Solar said it had added almost 1GW of new projects to a pipeline that previously stood at 2.9GW. Net sales were US$957 million, up from US$497 million last quarter while revenue guidance was raised for 2012 to US$3.6-US$3.9 billion, up from a range of US$3.5 billion to US$3.8 billion.
German logistics company Deutsche Bahn’s PV plant located in Wittenberge, Germany, has officially commenced operation. The plant was developed in partnership with India-based Moser Baer Clean Energy and has a total capacity of 3.92MWp.
Japan’s largest single utility-scale solar power plant, using 290,000 multicrystalline solar modules supplied by Kyocera is expected to cost in the region of US$345 million or approximately ¥27 billion when complet by autumn 2013. With project finance now in place, construction of the plant in Kagoshima City, on land owned by IHI Corporation, will start in September. The plant was initially announced in April 2012.
IKEA has been on a roll this week announcing the completion of its latest rooftop solar projects on its US stores. Following its Chicago and Atlanta installations, the company revealed that its Draper, Utah store now has a 1,015kW system spread across 180,500 square feet of rooftop space producing electricity.
