Dealing with the acute lack of capital spending across the PV supply chain, major equipment supplier Meyer Burger is consolidating its production and technology operations after several years of leading an acquisition trail. The company said it would focus operations at four main production locations and two solar technology centres worldwide.
Kyocera has released, what the company deems to be, conclusive evidence that its solar modules show only 8.3% degradation after 20 years. The Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA) used a sample from Kyocera’s 945W roof installation in the small village of Lhuis, Lyon, France, to test under laboratory conditions. The results demonstrate that the modules were still performing at 91.7% of their original maximum power output.
According to a monthly report from Italian grid operator Terna SpA, solar power provided 8.4% of total Italian electricity demand in August. It also revealed that electricity generated from PV during that month grew by 49.2%, from 1,501 GWh in August 2011 to 2,240 GWh in August 2012.
Senersun has struck a deal with Poland’s Solar-Bau, which will see the company supply 23MW of its PV modules to Solar-Bau. Solar-Bau, an EPC company, will now be Senersun’s official partner in Poland. Alexandre Minuzzo, CEO of Senersun, noted, “We are proud to welcome Solar-Bau to Senersun’s network of official partners. With their impressive portfolio of projects and a much promising pipeline, Solar-Bau is clearly a high-profile solar company in Poland. We trust that this agreement with them will create synergies between our two companies, which will benefit our end-users in the country.”
IBC Solar announced that it has added Sungrow Power Supply’s PV inverters to its porftfolio. IBC Solar expects for the collaboration to allow it to offer its domestic and international clients a wider product range of PV inverter products that better meet their needs.
Martifer Solar, part of Portugal-based Martifer SGPS SA, has announced that it has completed the construction of a 1.5MW PV plant for in Pufesti, Vrancea County, Romania for Danish company Eurowind Energy. The plant represents the company’s first PV plant in the country.
With the 27th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (27th EU PVSEC) just around the corner on September 24-28, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) has announced a string of high level speakers for its events at this year’s conference.
According to Hellenic Transmission System Operator SA (HTSO), Greece has installed an additional 75MW of PV in July which brings its total amount of installed PV capacity in the first six months of the year to 319MW. This was a slight drop compared to last month, when statistics showed that the country installed a total of 97MW in PV capacity.
Two and a half months after starting construction, Gehrlicher Solar advised that it has completed its Perleberg solar park, located between Hamburg and Berlin. The system holds a 35MWp nominal capacity and is anticipated to generate nearly 33 million kWh of power per year. The company noted that because of the solar park’s high capacity, it also built a separate expandable 110kV transformer station, which connected the solar installation to the grid on August 23.
Westinghouse Solar and CBD Energy have formed a joint venture with an intent to design, engineer, procure and construct commercial PV projects in Italy. Westinghouse Solar will have a 25% stake, with the option to take up to a 50% stake, in the profits from CBD’s commercial project pipeline in Italy in exchange for an investment of US$1.5 million (with an option to invest an additional US$1.5 million).
