Americas

The solar industry's drive to reduce soft costs continues to gather pace with the announcement this week of the acquisition of one of California's largest distributed energy companies by Solar Universe, a franchise that leases and sells rooftop systems.

The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) in Canada has published draft rules for the next round of its feed-in tariff (FiT) programme, which opens for bids in the autumn.

Solar silicon provider Silicor has announced that it has secured new investment as it looks to expands its manufacturing operations.

SolarWorld Americas has begun work on solar carports at four public parks in Thousand Oaks, California.

The Chilean senate has voted this week on revised targets for renewable energy production, making a unanimous decision in favour of aiming for producing 20% of the nation’s energy from renewable sources by 2025.

Sputnik Engineering, the firm behind the SolarMax invertor brand, claims to have limited the extent of job losses as it begins a restructuring.

Renewable energy developer the Juwi Group has secured a €252 million (US$336 million) loan, calling it an “act of faith” in the sector.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded US$7 billion of contracts to 22 companies for the right to develop and sell solar energy to the US Army.

Solar tracking equipment manufacturer Array Technologies has completed shipment of a tracking system to a 170MWac solar PV project near Calexico, California, six months ahead of schedule.

Two engineers working on First Solar's Desert Sunlight Solar Farm were killed yesterday when their plane crashed near the construction site close to Joshua Tree National Park.