Solar thermal project developer BrightSource Energy has placed the top bid for Palen, a 500MW solar thermal plant, at a Delaware auction of property of Solar Trust of America, which went bankrupt in April this year. The as-yet unbuilt solar thermal plant is said to have been bought by BrightSource for an unconfirmed amount of up to US$30 million.
Canadian solar power producer Etrion has opened an office in Santiago, Chile, the company has announced. The company is trying to break into the Chilean market and is currently in negotiations for a power purchase agreement (PPA) for the construction of a 5MW PV project in Chile. Etrion is expecting to sign more PPAs for possible PV projects throughout the year.
First Solar and enXco, a subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles, signed a solar module supply agreement, which will see First Solar deliver 61MWp of its thin-film modules. Delivery is set to start in September and will supply enXco’s Catalina Solar Project in Kern County, California.
Lancaster, California, US, has received the Energy Globe Award to recognize the installation of its many alternative energy projects. The city’s "Home of the Future" project, conducted in conjunction with KB Home and China-based BYD, was the focus as a public-private partnership of international proportions.
The dust is yet to settle on tariff determinations against Chinese manufacturers, but the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) has released a statement warning of a “conspiracy to commit offence or to defraud the United States”. According to CASM, Chinese solar cell and panel exporters are reportedly planning to evade antidumping/countervailing orders. It asserts that this will not be effective, could be illegal and may expose US importers, in addition to Chinese exporters, to liability under US law, including significant financial penalties and criminal prosecution.
Thin-film manufacturer NovaSolar has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That’s not unusual, a number of companies have gone bankrupt in the last months. NovaSolar, though, is the US arm of Chinese NovaStar, a company that was created with the remaining assets from bankrupt OptiSolar three years ago.
Under intense pressure to remain the low-cost leader, First Solar is taking a leaf from the semiconductor industry by teaming up with materials specialists Intermolecular to fast-track R&D research in materials and processes to shorten the time-to-market for higher efficiency CdTe-based, thin-film PV modules. Taking record cell and module efficiencies from the lab to the fab has proved to be a perennial problem for all types of PV technology.
Solon Corporation has agreed to build a 1.15MW PV system for the Tanque Verde Unified School District (TVUSD) in Tucson, Arizona, the company has announced. The system will be installed across the four campuses of Tanque Verde High School and Elementary School, the Emily Gray Junior High School and the Agua Caliente Elementary School. Solon Corporation will design and construct the system and maintain its operation once completed; the energy generated will we sold to TVUSD under a 25-year PPA. The project is expected to commence operation in early 2013.
SunPower has completed a 1.8MW PV installation at the main building of Bloomberg’s New Jersey campus, the company has announced. The system is owned by Integrys Energy Services and Bloomberg will be buying the generated electricity at below-retail rates. The system is equipped with SunPower PV panels as well as the SunPower T0 tracker system.
Distributed Energy Research & Solutions, or EnergySage, has been the recipient of one of 10 Department of Energy (DoE) SunShot Incubator investments worth US$500,000. The funding will be used to develop a web-based PV comparison-shopping platform that aims to deliver pricing transparency and encourage online networking among property owners and solar PV installers.
