DayStar Technologies and Ontario, Canada’s, Grasshopper Energy entered into an LOI agreement in which DayStar will buy Grasshopper Energy in, an expected, 30 days. The purchase will be a 100% equity transaction. Grasshopper Energy is known for its turnkey solutions and is said to have one of the largest presences in Ontario. The company has over 100 microFiT contracts awarded to date worth CAN$50 million and additional microFiT and FiT applications exceeding 3,500 projects, which make a potential pipeline worth over CAN$100 million.
At his keynote speech at Solar Power International in Florida this year, former President Bill Clinton put forward a proposal to energize the solar PV industry: “Americans need to know more than they now know”.
First Solar noted that, in its opinion, Australia is four years behind the US in the development of large solar farms. In a report by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, it was reported that the company is looking to help Australia build up its solar industry, specifically with a 10MW project that First Solar is partnering on with General Electric.
Yingli Green Energy Holding’s acted as the exclusive PV module supplier for what is being called the largest solar plant in Latin America to date. The company delivered 40MW of its PV modules for the project, which is being developed by Gestamp Solar and Solarpack in collaboration with other local companies.
Canadian Solar has teamed up with US roofing company PetersenDean in order to offer a new roofing program. PetersenDean has initiated its own solar division and will use it to promote the program. No details were given by the companies entailing what the program or the partnership will specifically offer. However, PetersenDean did note that the program will kick-off at Santana Row, October 19-21.
The long and winding road to this final determination imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties against Chinese manufacturers has finally been reached. The US Department of Commerce (DoC) has announced that Chinese producers/exporters have sold solar cells in the United States at dumping margins ranging from 18.32% to 249.96%. The DoC also determined that Chinese producers/exporters have received countervailable subsidies of 14.78% to 15.97%. This is approximately the same as the ruling in May and in some cases 10% lower.
The Chinese government’s actions this summer to further raise the country’s PV installation targets appears to have had the desired effect. IMS Research’s latest report provides hope to the Chinese market forecasting a surge in the second half of 2012 with more than 4GW of PV installations to be completed, taking full-year installations to 5GW, even though it experienced a slow start to the year with just 720MW installed in the first half.
