A report by Bloomberg has brought Solyndra back into the spotlight. The now defunct company reached a US$3.5 million settlement with former workers who filed suit against Solyndra, alleging that they had not received adequate layoff notices. The settlement resolves the issue that the company did not give employees 60 days’ notice under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act when it fired most of its workforce on August 31, 2011.
After entering discussions concerning two PPAs, Corporación Dominicana de Empresas Eléctricas Estatales (CDEEE) has signed on the dotted line enabling the state-owned utility to purchase output from two 58MW PV projects in the Dominican Republic.
Hanwha SolarOne has officially launched its new North American unit, Hanwha SolarEnergy America (HSEA), which will serve customers in the utility and commercial sectors. The company noted that its new North American arm completes the integration of Solar Monkey, a California developer Hanwha SolarOne bought with an initial stake in January 2011. HSEA has developed a project pipeline of 1GW.
The US Export-Import bank signed a declaration of intent (DOI) with the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa. The DOI aims to progress the South African government’s Integrated Resource Plan and the South African Renewable Initiative. The agreement will see the Ex-Im bank provide financing up to US$2 billion worth of US technologies, products and services to South Africa’s energy sector, with a focus on clean-energy development.
The US residential solar lease market remains highly competitive with a new deal struck by SunPower to access US$325 million in new finance from 2-major investment banks, Citi and Credit Suisse. The new financing comes soon after major competitors in the third party leasing market, SunCity and Sunrun received significant new funding from Credit Suisse to the tune of a combined US$300 million in late July, 2012.
Installation of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (Ivanpah SEGS) worth US$2.2 billion is 50% complete, according to an announcement by NRG Energy, Google, BrightSource Energy and construction partner Bechtel.
Suntech Power Holdings revealed that in July 2012 it had achieved the milestone of delivering more than 1GW of solar panels to customers in North and South America. The company noted that it is one of the first global solar companies with a 1GW delivery record for the region. Worldwide, Suntech has shipped more than 7GW of its solar panels to over 1,000 customers in more than 80 countries.
Conergy has successfully completed the installation of its 1.8MW solar project at Aqua Pennsylvania’s Pickering water treatment facility. The Aqua Pickering Solar Farm produces 2.3kWh of peak-time energy per year and is expected to generate nearly 50,0000MWh of solar electricity over its lifetime.
It appears the waivered salary of 2011 from Frank Asbeck, CEO for SolarWorld, was not wasted. The company has invested a total of US$27million to upgrade and replace several factory systems at its Hillsboro, Oregan, US plant. This particular facility was considered to be one of the ‘last plants standing’ in September 2011 because production lines were shuttered in Germany and throughout the US. The Hillsboro location also houses a demonstration park to debut technological advances, it hopes will boost the power output of its high-performance solar panels. The new initiatives push SolarWorld’s total capital investment in Hillsboro to more than US$600 million.
Ascent Solar Technologies, a developer of flexible thin-film PV modules, has signed an agreement to supply BIPV thin-film laminates to Foxconn. The laminates will be used as part of a pilot installation at Foxconn’s new plant in Zhenzhou City, Henan Province, China. Foxconn is a specialist in the manufacture of electronic devices and produces products such as the iPad and iPhone.
