The US’s largest solar and wind project developer, NextEra, has placed the successful bid to purchase the unbuilt 1GW Blythe solar project in Riverside County, California. The plant is another of the projects – both built and unbuilt – being auctioned off from the assets of bankrupt Solar Trust of America. The agreed price of the project was not revealed.
Canadian Solar and solar installer Real Goods Solar have entered a supply agreement, it has been announced. Canadian Solar will provide approximately 40MW of PV modules to Real goods Solar under the agreement. The modules are intended for commercial as well as residential PV systems in the US. Canadian Solar recently acquired 122MW of US projects and the company has announced that it intents to expand onto the US market.
First Solar has reached an agreement regarding the DoE loan funded AV Solar Ranch One in Antelope Valley, the company has announced. The company has resumed the installation of its PV modules at the PV plant after being forced to cease construction in order to deal with module code certification issues. First Solar and the Los Angeles Country Department of Public Works have now reached an agreement about the PV module installation and First Solar is able to continue constructing the 230MW project. Construction of the PV plant began in August 2011 and the project is expected to be completed in 2013.
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.
