A 1.7MW solar PV power system comprised of 7300 Motech crystalline-silicon panels has been installed at AstraZeneca's campus in Wilmington, DE. The project is expected to produce about 2.1 million KWh annually, which will account for approximately 10% of an office building's electricity needs.
Solaire Generation has unveiled its new Premium F2 solar carport at General Electric’s (GE) complex in Plainville, Connecticut. The electricity generated by the 98.7kW system will be used to power up to 13 vehicles and is GE's largest charging station of this kind in North America.
The latest quarterly edition of the ‘U.S. Solar Market Insight’ report, published by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research, reveals continued strong growth in PV installations in the US. Grid-connected PV installations in the first quarter of 2011 increased 66% compared to the same quarter a year ago to reach 252MW. Cumulative grid-connected PV in the US has now reached over 2.3GW, according to the report. PV module production also increased in the US, growing by 17% relative to the fourth quarter of 2010, and up from 297MW to 348MW.
Munich Reinsurance America (Munich Re) has chosen SunPower to design and build its new 2.5MW solar power system in Plainsboro, New Jersey. Construction of the carport system will begin later this year and is scheduled to finish in the second half of 2012.
The 37th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, Washington June 19 -24, is ready to welcome the cream of the PV crop. The final program was recently announced with presentations during the week focusing on 10 technical areas, including crystalline silicon technologies, organic PV and space technologies. Over 1,200 technical abstracts from around the world were submitted for consideration, marking a new record for IEEE PVSC.
Santa Clara University’s School of Engineering received a generous gift from an anonymous alumnus and his wife totaling US$1.3 million. The funding will go towards the launch of the Latimer Engineering Scholars Program, which beginning in the 2011 – 2012 academic year will sponsor teaching and research in the sustainable energy field.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has offered a conditional loan guarantee totalling US$1.2 billion to help build a 280MW Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant in southern California. If confirmed, the DOE guarantee will help fund the construction and start-up of Abengoa’s Mojave Solar Project (MSP), which is to be located around 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County.
Solon and UniSource Energy Services (UES) have agreed to develop a 1.22MW solar PV system on six acres of land owned by the Kingman Unified School District (KUSD) and located behind La Senita Elementary School in Arizona. The companies state that this will be the largest single physical PV system on school property in the state with UES owning and operating the system while Solon takes the lead on the engineering, procurement and construction services.
Kyocera Solar’s new MyGen US-made solar kits are now available for residential and light-commercial solar energy installations being developed by new and veteran solar professionals alike. The domestically produced pre-engineered kits include modules, inverters, racking, monitoring, grounding, manual, drawings and all the marginal components needed to complete a solar installation.
In reporting first quarter financial results, metals specialist Timminco, noted that it had rebranded its solar grade silicon operations as ‘Timminco Solar’ and was executing a strategic marketing effort to communicate to PV manufacturers its ‘value proposition’ for the product. Timminco management said that the firm had shipped 135MT of solar grade silicon from inventory in the first four months of the year with 63MT alone shipped in April, 2011.
