Americas

A twenty-year veteran in the electric utility and electric equipment manufacturing industry, Dr. Ali Chowdhury, is the new vice president of transmission and interconnection planning for 8minutenergy Renewables. In his new role, Chowdhury will oversee the development and business features necessary to bring solar PV projects to their full realization in a swift period of time.

Utility-scale developer SolarReserve has been awarded its final Certificates of Environmental Compatibility (CEC) from the Arizona Corporation Commission for its 150MW Crossroads Solar Energy Project to be built near Gila Bend. The approval includes the associated transmission line connecting the CSP project to Arizona Public Service’s transmission grid.

HelioPower has started construction of its 516kW (DC) solar power system at the Giumarra Vineyards production and cold storage facility in Bakersfield, California. The system will use over 2,296 PV modules to produce 1GWh of electricity per year.

Founder and President Emeritus of SunPower, Richard Swanson, has been selected as the recipient for the 2011 Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit. The honor comes with a cash award of US$50,000, which is funded by the Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit Trust. The Medal is given every two years to an individual that has made ground-breaking contributions towards the promotion of solar energy through research, development or economic enterprise or to an individual that has proven themselves with valuable and enduring contributions to the solar energy field.

During its fourth quarter in 2010, Clear Skies Solar released that it was expanding its market focus with a new division that would focus on solar installation projects in the sub-300kW division for commercial and residential installations. Moving forward with this resolution, the company has added new members to its sales and management teams including Allen Sosis as vice president of sales and marketing and John Conte as the national vice president of residential sales.

Over the next 18-months Georgia Power and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will be performing a study that will assess how solar PV power systems affect Georgia Power’s distribution system. Testing will be conducted at fifty PV systems that will be installed in cities around Georgia including: Augusta, Columbus, Conley, Macon, Rome, Savannah and Valdosta. The panels installed will be owned by EPRI and installed by Georgia Power.

Making progress on its goal of having 250MW of commercial rooftop PV power deployed within the next four years, Southern California Edison has interconnected seven new distributed-generation solar plants. The systems, located on more than 3.36 million square feet of ProLogis-owned warehouse roof space in the Southern California cities of Ontario and Redlands, have a combined installed generating capacity of 12.5MW (AC).

Unirac and Canadian Solar Solutions have come together to offer its residential and commercial customers 30MW of Canadian Solar’s PV systems coupled with Unirac’s mounting solutions for rooftop installations in Canada. Canadian Solar will provide the engineering, procurement and construction services for the projects, while Unirac will supply its racking technology. Both companies look to their partnership as a way for their customers to further take advantage of Ontario’s FIT program.

Pro-Tech Energy Solutions has appointed Richard Cooper as its new president. Cooper will be charged with helping Pro-Tech reach its goal of becoming Northeast America’s biggest developer of turnkey solar projects.

The exotic animals and plants at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden will soon be vying for visitor attention with a new attraction – America’s largest publicly accessible urban solar panel array.