The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are evaluating the feasibility of developing renewable energy production on Superfund, brownfields and former landfill or mining sites.
Capacity expansions are out, improving manufacturing line efficiencies and productivity is in, according to First Solar’s chairman Michael Ahearn, who took over the CEO role from ousted Rob Gillete last week. Capacity expansions had seen average module efficiencies rates increase modestly in 2011; on the downside, production cost per watt merely flat-lined. Almost unheard of was the fact that manufacturing line utilization rates had dipped below 100% as capacity outstripped demand. Back at the helm, Ahearn said that First Solar would re-focus on markets without energy subsidies such as the Middle East as well as markets with critical energy needs such as India, North Africa and China.
Social media giant, Facebook, is entering the solar cogeneration arena with help from Cogenra Solar, which will be developing a renewable hot water and electricity solar cogeneration array on the rooftop of Facebook’s Menlo Park campus fitness centre. Cogenra advised that this is not only Facebook’s first venture into solar energy at its corporate campus, but that the company will be the first corporate campus to use solar cogeneration.
SunPower’s latest endeavours in California includes partnering with Orchard Supply Hardware, a chain of 89 hardware and garden retail stores located throughout the state, in order to reach a wider audience through information displays and at www.OSH.com.
With help from REC Solar and Gehrlicher Solar, IKEA will be installing approximately 10,000 solar panels across the rooftops of its Draper, Utah, New Haven Connecticut and Portland, Oregon stores. The three new installations will generate 3,156MWh of electricity per year and bring IKEA’s solar program to 23 store installations in the US.
In the fourth consecutive Schott Solar Barometer survey, conducted by Kelton Research on behalf of Schott Solar, US-based respondents expressed a significant support for the use and development of solar energy and federal investments for solar. According to Kelton, nine out of 10 Americans, or 89%, responded that they felt it was important for the US to develop and use solar energy. Breaking the results down by political party, 80% of Republicans, 90% of Independents and 94% of Democrats, agreed for furthering solar in the US.
The T-Solar Group, which has 230MW of solar projects under construction in Spain, Italy, India and Peru, advised that it is continuing its international development with the addition of 61MW of solar power in Peru and India. The company recently brought its 5MW PV power plant in India online, which uses thin-film amorphous silicon panels that were fabricated at its Galicia, Spain factory.
BioSolar advised that its BioBacksheet has been granted provisional relative thermal index (RTI) recognition by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). The company first received UL materials certification for its technology in February and since that time has seen the UL conduct long-term thermal stability testing on the BioBacksheet.
Solon will be building a 10MW solar PV plant near Kingman, Arizona for UniSource Energy Services (UES), which, under a 20-year PPA, will allow the utility to provide renewable power to its customers without the upfront cost of the system installation. The 10MW array will accompany the 1.22MW UES-owned solar array that Solon developed near Kingman’s La Senita Elementary School.
Earlier this year, Veeco announced its impending exit from the CIGS thin-film PV business and with its announcement advised of its intentions to transfer its R&D facility and pilot line in New York to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at the University of Albany. Three months after the initial declaration, Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, Senior VP and CEO of CNSE, and Congressman Chris Gibson, came together to formally launch CNSE’s new Solar Energy Development Center in Halfmoon, New York, which has taken over the facility once occupied by Veeco.
