Yingli Green Energy and FC Bayern Munich are jointly hosting the FC Bayern Youth Cup finals. The tournament comes after Yingli Green became an official sponsor of the FC Bayern last year, amidst a flurry of Chinese sponsorship in German football clubs. Yingli’s 3 year sponsorship deal with the club will give them marketing rights to areas such as tickets, advertising and public relations. It is hoped the event will help provide underprivileged children with the opportunity to play football and showcase their talents.
Clenergy, PV mounting system manufacturer, has moved its European headquarters to Cologne. The offices were formerly located in Frankfurt but the company decided on the strategic move to Cologne in order to optimize logistics and human resource planning. The company’s European warehouse will also be relocated from Southern Germany to the new location in Cologne.
The German Bundestag has voted in favour of cuts in solar incentives and approved new guidelines for renewable energies. With a majority of votes from the coalition, the law to change regulation regarding renewable energies (17/8877) passed the Bundestag on Thursday.
SAG Solarstrom’s sale of the 48MW Serenissima PV plant in Italy to an unnamed European investor will be concluded shortly, the company has announced. The completion of the sale was delayed by contingent high administrative efforts.
The Italian PV association, Gruppo Imprese Fotovoltaiche Italiane (GIFI), had previously demanded the government provide verification for the drafts of the new energy bill to replace Conto Energia four floating around the internet. However, market research company Jefferies, following its attendance at a photon conference has advised caution to its investors to not believe a fifth energy bill has already been released. The government is to announce its decision either late spring or early summer.
German EPC company Solea has developed and completed construction of a 7.7MW ground-mounted PV project in record time.
On February 23, the German federal environmental ministry released a proposal for its new renewable energy laws, including cuts in FiTs by 30%, effective March 8, 2012.
The University of Seville, the Social Council and the Focus-Abengoa Foundation have awarded the 9th “Javier Benjumea Puigcerver” research prize to Eduardo Fernández Camacho for his applied research on the increase in performance of solar-thermal plants through predictive control. The prize was awarded to the university professor on the basis that his submitted work was of “extraordinary scientific value” to the globally important issue of energy supply.
The partnership between Silfab SpA and ISC Konstanz has announced the achievement of a 21% energy conversion efficiency for large area monocrystalline silicon solar cells. The news is a result of the companies’ research partnership on ‘Zebra’ interdigitated back-contact (IBC) cells as unveiled by the joint venture last summer. It is believed that efficiency could eventually top 24% for the solar cells.
The Supreme Court has rejected the UK government’s appeal over cuts to the domestic feed-in tariff scheme. In the latest of three court cases, judges upheld the decision of a Judicial Review that ruled the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) proposed revisions to the FiT were “legally flawed”.
The Federal Network Agency recently confirmed earlier reports that in 2011, a 7.5GW capacity of solar was installed in Germany, amounting to nearly 238,000 units installed in total. Bavaria led the way with 1.75GW installed followed by Brandenburg with 1GW. The agency acknowledged that the regional shift was due to the expansion of open space systems.
