The Solar Dawn Consortium in Australia has cancelled plans to develop its beleaguered A$1.2 billion (US$1.3 billion) Western Downs facility, it has been announced.
A third New Zealand-funded PV system has been completed in Tokelau which means that the New Zealand-owned territory now has the capabilities to be powered by 100% solar energy, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said.
Having sold its 1MW Uterne PV plant last week, SunPower has announced it has invested in Diamond Energy, a privately-owned, alternative energy project developer and clean electricity retailer headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. SunPower has acquired a minority stake of approximately 42% in Diamond Energy and under terms of the agreement has an option to increase its ownership percentage over time. SunPower will also assume a seat on the company's board of directors.
Updated: Response to the European Commission’s anti-dumping investigation of solar modules and products imported into the EU from key Chinese producers was rapid and unanimous in condemnation of the action but also conciliatory in confirming their willingness to co-operate fully with the investigation.
Major restructuring efforts at First Solar took a backseat during the company’s second quarter conference call as management focused on a significant increase in its PV project pipeline. First Solar said it had added almost 1GW of new projects to a pipeline that previously stood at 2.9GW. Net sales were US$957 million, up from US$497 million last quarter while revenue guidance was raised for 2012 to US$3.6-US$3.9 billion, up from a range of US$3.5 billion to US$3.8 billion.
ReneSola advised that it has sold 5.95MW of its Virtus modules to Australian distributor Solargain PV. The agreement calls for ReneSola to ship 5.95MW of its 250W modules directly to Solargain. The company noted that it expects to ship more modules to Solargain in the future.
Having broken ground last year, with an investment of US$6.6 million from the coffers of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade Aid Programme, Tonga’s first and largest grid-connected solar park is to go online on July 24. The new solar power plant at the Popua Power Station, south-east of the island capital of Nuku’alofa on Tongatapu will have a total capacity of 1.3MW and will be supplied with Conergy Australia’s mounting systems.
Amid last week's crowded halls at Intersolar in San Francisco, a handful of companies were noticeable by their absence. A track devoted to concentrating solar technologies such as CPV and CSP featured Areva, which carved itself a niche in steam augmentation for existing fossil plants, but failed to attract BrightSource and SolarReserve.
ReneSola has entered into a supply agreement with Greek Big Solar, the company has announced. Under the agreement, ReneSola will provide Big Solar with 100MW of its Virtus PV modules. ReneSola further announced the revision of its 2012 half year shipment guidance of wafers and modules, which is expected to be up to 1GW. The company assumes that the full year shipments with be up to 2.4GW compared to previous estimation of approximately 2GW.
Transform Solar, a JV established in 2010 between Origin Energy and Micron Technology, advised that it will no longer be manufacturing its Sliver PV modules in Idaho. The company decided to take this route after a review of the global oversupply of PV capacity and the resulting difficult market conditions. Operations and workforce in Idaho will be progressively cut over the next three months.
