Construction on the world’s largest solar thermal power plant was officially begun at a groundbreaking ceremony held on Friday June 17th. Attending the ceremony for the Blythe solar power plant facility was US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, California’s Governor Jerry Brown and Joseph DeConinck, Blythe’s mayor, as well as representatives of the Solar Trust of America and Solar Millennium.
Etrion and Phoenix Solar are joining forces to build a 2.6MW PV system in Nettuno, Italy. The plant is scheduled to be completed by the end of August and consequently will not be affected by the changes introduced under the recently-passed Conto Energia IV bill.
iGen Energy has finished the first phase of its 96kW rooftop solar installation on a production facility in Buxton, UK. The project will be the first in the country to feature Q-Cells’ Q.SMART thin-film modules and is being built for cleaning chemicals manufacturer Selden Research.
A 1.7MW solar PV power system comprised of 7300 Motech crystalline-silicon panels has been installed at AstraZeneca's campus in Wilmington, DE. The project is expected to produce about 2.1 million KWh annually, which will account for approximately 10% of an office building's electricity needs.
Solaire Generation has unveiled its new Premium F2 solar carport at General Electric’s (GE) complex in Plainville, Connecticut. The electricity generated by the 98.7kW system will be used to power up to 13 vehicles and is GE's largest charging station of this kind in North America.
Munich Reinsurance America (Munich Re) has chosen SunPower to design and build its new 2.5MW solar power system in Plainsboro, New Jersey. Construction of the carport system will begin later this year and is scheduled to finish in the second half of 2012.
Belgian rail network operator Infrabel has opened its new Paris to Amsterdam high-speed rail link tunnel, which features 16,000 solar panels on its 3.4km rooftop. The plant will produce electricity for the railway infrastructure on the Antwerp North-South junction, including signaling, lighting and heating railway stations, as well as powering the trains.
Solon and UniSource Energy Services (UES) have agreed to develop a 1.22MW solar PV system on six acres of land owned by the Kingman Unified School District (KUSD) and located behind La Senita Elementary School in Arizona. The companies state that this will be the largest single physical PV system on school property in the state with UES owning and operating the system while Solon takes the lead on the engineering, procurement and construction services.
The U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Kekaha, Hawaii is employing stainless steel racking and PV inverters, due to the tropical marine environment on the island that generates sea-salt moisture. Advanced Energy developed a stainless steel PV inverter range that is being used for the 787-kilowatt project. Maui Solar is developing the projects.
The US Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado “switched-on” its new 6MW solar PV power system built by Colorado Springs Utilities and SunPower. Funded in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the plant uses SunPower solar panels and the company’s T0 Tracker system.
