WCVB Boston has reported that Massachusetts’ governor, Devel Patrick, will “turn on” the state’s first solar park today. The 4.5MW solar facility is built across 22-acres in Westford and uses 14,000 solar panels. Built by Cathartes Private Investments, the US$23 million complex will be operated by Nexamp.
Rajasthan, India, will not be awarding contracts to build 200MW of solar capacity to competing companies until August, a two-month delay. According to Bloomberg, MM Vijayvergia, executive director of Rajasthan Renewable Energy advised that the last day for companies to submit their interest in the bidding is May 18.
Q-Cells has completed the construction of the largest European PV project, located in Brandenburg-Briest. The construction of the 91MW solar park took only eight weeks and the project on the former 200 hectares military base in the east of Germany is equipped with approximately 383,000 Q-Cells crystalline PV modules, with a total capacity of 91MWp.
Intel Vietnam has announced the opening of the biggest solar power plant in Vietnam to date, located at Saigon's High-Tech Park. Intel’s US$1.1 million project is equipped with 1,092 solar panels and 21 adapters. It has an output of 321,000kWh per year.
Scandinavian solar power company REC has sold a German ground mounted 6MW PV plant in Bitterfeld to two Chorus Group investors, including Chorus Cleantech. REC took over the project in 2011 from the plant’s former developer, Grüne Energien, and successfully developed, financed and constructed the project with project financing from the Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB). Construction was finished in December 2011 to ensure the project’s eligibility for the higher 2011 FiT.
During the latest round of auctions by state-run Karnataka Renewable Energy Development (KREDL), Welspun Group and Sunborne Energy Holdings were awarded contracts to build solar PV plants in Karnataka, India. According to Bloomberg, Welspun plans to build a 7MW PV project while Sunborne will develop a 10MW solar thermal project.
According to a Hindu Business Line report, eight PV developers have been selected to install a total of 60MW in the Indian state of Karnataka.
In total the state will see the installation of 80MW of solar energy, of which 20MW will be solar thermal and 60MW PV energy. The Karnataka Solar Mission aims to install and connect 350MW by the year 2016. The developers were selected in a reverse bidding process. A second set of auctions is scheduled for October.
Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative (CVEC) has contracted Broadway Electrical Company with a Round II PV agreement to supply a total of 49.4MW energy for projects in Massachusetts. The company will develop, install and operate 44 PV projects in varying sizes, located in the areas of Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod. Broadway Electrical will sell the energy through a number of 20-year PPAs.
The Vineyard Electric Cooperative (CVEC) announced that it had awarded its Round II PV contract to Broadway Electrical and Cape, which consists of two tiers of PV installations that amount to 49.37MW of PV capacity. Broadway will design and install 44 PV systems throughout the Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard regions, helping to supply the areas municipal companies’ electricity at a fixed kWh rate for 20 years.
Power Engineering reported that the city of Xigaze in Tibet has a new 30MW solar plant in operation. This is the first phase of a large-scale PV project that is being developed by Linuo Power Group. LDK Solar’s 60MW industrial solar park and Chaorisolar’s 10MW installation are still under construction.
