Americas

The Brazilian state of Minas Gerais is in line to become home to the country’s first PV cell and module manufacturing plant.

Hoku Materials’ never-used polysilicon plant in Idaho has sold at auction for US$5.3 million. The company had invested an estimated US$700 million in the facility.

The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), which represents all investor owned utilities in the US, has been urged to confess or condemn the use of so-called “dark money” to pay for campaigns against solar net metering.

Real Goods Solar (RGS) has reported higher revenue and gross profit, lower operational costs and lower net loss for the third quarter of 2013.

International solar panel manufacturer, REC Solar, has supplied a 2.15MW ground-mounted installation with more than 8,700 solar panels in Ohio.

NextEra Energy Resources, one of North America’s biggest renewable energy owner operators, has revealed it has a solar project backlog of 800MW.

SunPower, the second largest US solar manufacturer, has acquired solar farm cleaning equipment manufacturer Greenbotics.

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) is demanding information from organisations including utility Arizona Public Service (APS) on the possible use of ratepayer funds in controversial public relations campaigns against solar power and net metering.

Technology giant, Apple has applied for the patent of a power management system to utilise portable solar panels, to the US patent and trademark office on Thursday.

US thin-film giant First Solar has seen its third quarter sales surge 51% compared to the same period last year.