Americas

Pacific Gas & Electric's "pre-Gutenberg" manual billing has been named as one of the top five biggest money wasters for California utilities.

In collaboration with the SUNY NanoCollege and U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium, flexible CIGS thin-film start-up, Magnolia Solar has claimed it has demonstrated a solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 13%. The company did not state aperture area dimensions.

Spanish PV developer Gestamp Solar has confirmed that the Tacna Solar and Panamericana Solar PV plants in Peru have become operational.

Bosch Solar Energy, the solar arm of global technology specialist The Bosch Group, has selected EPC firm RMK Solar as one of its first PowerPro partners to offer PV systems using Bosch-manufactured PV modules.

Electrical contractor Del Monte Electric has completed the installation of solar power systems in 51 schools at Mount Diablo Unified School District, in California.

Bosch Solar Energy has completed a multi-site solar project on the Islands of Maui and Lanai, in Hawaii.

Exports of US solar products to China delivered a surplus of US$913 million in 2011, despite the demise of America's module manufacturing and Chinese government support for its renewables industry, according to an influential report released today.

US retail giant Walmart has expanded its solar presence in the US with its first solar installations in the state of Ohio.

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has verified a new ‘dual junction’ thin film solar cell technology from Alta Devices with a conversion efficiency of 30.8%.

Utility-scale PV project developer 8minutenergy Renewables has completed the pre-construction development stage of the proposed 266MW DC (200MW AC) Mount Signal solar farm and will now begin building the facility.