Americas

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), KfW Entwicklungsbank, has signed a €10 million (US$13 million) loan guarantee with Brazil’s Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais (CEMIG) for the Solar World Cup 2014 project.

Solectria Renewables has been awarded a contract to deliver its commercial inverters to 1st Light Energy for installation on 10MW worth of rooftop PV projects.

PV module manufacturer Kyocera Solar’s North American facilities have exceeded the two million mark in the production of photovoltaic modules.

Renewable developer Sempra US Gas & Power has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the California cities of Los Angeles and Burbank.

Sempra US Gas & Power, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, has finished building the first phase of the 150MW Copper Mountain Solar 2 PV project in Boulder City, Nevada, US.

Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California, has become home to a 1.5MW tracking solar array.

The US solar PV market grew by 684MW in the third quarter of 2012, 44% more than in the same period last year, according to a report by Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research.

Bifacial and holographic bifacial solar module producer Prism Solar Technologies has received UL 1703, ULC/ORD-C1703-1 and California Energy Commission (CEC) certifications via product safety certification organisation Intertek.

Solar will play a central role in boosting the share of renewables in America’s energy mix between now and 2040, according to figures from the US Energy Information Administration.

Developing renewable energy projects in India is more expensive than in either the US or Europe, according to a report released by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and the Indian School of Business (ISB).