US retail giant Walmart is continuing to fulfill its promise to invest in renewable energy and has installed solar panels on the rooftop of its College Avenue store in San Diego to generate electricity. This marks the company’s100th solar installation in California and is in line with its aim to expand its solar portfolio to more than 75% of its stores in the state, approximately 130 stores, by the end of 2013.
SolarCity is continuing its upward spiral. At the beginning of this week, the company announced its partnership with Credit Suisse on a second round of investment. SolarCity has now opened an expanded operations centre in Beltsville, US. The company is ensuring new jobs in Maryland and to give the state’s homeowners, businesses and non-profit organizations better energy options that can cost less than their utility bills. Attendees at today’s grand opening included US senator Ben Cardin, as well as state senator Jim Rosapepe and state delegate Joseline Peña-Melnyk.
IKEA has been on a roll this week announcing the completion of its latest rooftop solar projects on its US stores. Following its Chicago and Atlanta installations, the company revealed that its Draper, Utah store now has a 1,015kW system spread across 180,500 square feet of rooftop space producing electricity.
Credit Suisse, which just announced its US$200 million partnership with Solar City, has additionally advised that it has committed US$200 million to Sunrun. The investment will help support the purchase and installation of thousands of residential solar systems in the US. Sunrun noted that it installs over US$1.5 million in solar every day and has more than 24,000 customers in ten states.
Upsolar advised that it had completed the installation of its latest project, which also happens to be the company’s largest project in the US to date: a 2.2MW solar plant in Sharon, Vermont. Talmage Solar Engineering oversaw the construction of the project, which uses Tigo Energy’s Module Maximizer technology and the company’s digital monitoring services at the module level.
Just two days after IKEA’s Atlanta store officially turned on its rooftop solar array, the company announced that two of its Chicago-area stores, in Bolingbrook and Schaumburg, Illinois, now sport new rooftop PV projects. The two projects cover a total of 248,700 square feet and have a combined generating capacity of 1,989kW. Together, the two installations use 8,463 panels, which were provided by SolarWorld. SoCore Energy was responsible for the development, design and installation.
Sitting in the middle of the San Francisco Bay is one of the most iconic US prisons, Alcatraz, and while it hasn’t served as an operating prison for several decades, it does now serve as host to a 307kW PV system. Developed by the National Park Service (NPS) and the U. S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) the solar project brings clean energy to another national landmark.
Eletrosul, Brazil’s energy utility, advised that it has chosen Portuguese electronics and engineer Efacec and its Brazilian unit, Efacec do Brasil, to build its 1MW solar park. The consortium won the bid for Megawatt Solar by acknowledging that it can build the project for a total of US$4 million.
Another solar company has fallen prey to the weakened economy, and like its predecessors Solyndra and Abound Solar, won’t be going quietly into the Nevada night. A report by the Las Vegas Review Journal has noted that one year after opening its doors, Amonix closed its 214,000 square foot North Las Vegas manufacturing plant, which was subsidized by over US$20 million in federal tax credits and grants. Amonix supposedly began selling equipment, including automated tooling systems and robotic welding cells in an online auction Wednesday.
Concerns of Chinese retaliation against US countervailing and anti-dumping duties have manifested themselves in a complaint filed to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. MOFCOM has today released a statement regarding an application requesting an anti-dumping investigation into US and South Korean exports to China. On behalf of the Chinese solar industry, Jiangsu Silicon Technology Development, LDK Solar, Luoyan Sino-Silicon high-tech and New Energy, filed the complaint on July 2. Interested parties have 20 days to respond to the complaint.
