Suntech offering new module series for burgeoning American market

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd has announced their newest offering for commercial and utility-scale solar projects in both North and South America. One of the largest solar panel manufacturers in the world, Suntech delivered more than one gigawatt of solar panels to customers in the Americas, as of July this year. “This new 300W module is what our customers have been asking for.

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Top Australian universities team up for solar research projects

Two of Australia’s top universities will work together on crucial solar photovoltaic research projects that will substantially lay the country’s solar foundation infrastructure. The University of New South Wales and the University of Queensland have secured major funding worth $40.7 million from the Education Investment Fund Research Infrastructure Program to hold two subsequent studies...

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European PV industry grew in 2011, remains leader – report

Posting revenues at a record $93 billion in 2011 and having 56 percent more installations, Europe remains the leader in the photovoltaic industry, accounting for more than 63 percent of total worldwide installations according to a report from the European Photonics Industry Consortium. Revenues grew that year by 13.4 percent from 2010, while installations grew by 56 percent, with the most installations coming from Germany with 27 percent.

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Japan’s richest man opens first of string of R.E. projects

Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank has completed the first phase of its solar facility, the Softbank Kyoto Solar Park, which is now operational in time for the new feed-in tariff law for renewable energy. The first installation of a planned 11, in the southern part of Kyoto City, has a capacity of 2.1 megawatts.

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Californian solar project site of First Solar’s 10 millionth utility solar module

Thin-film photovoltaic company First Solar, Inc. installed its 10 millionth solar photovoltaic module in a utility-scale power project at the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm in California. Upon completion in 2015, the 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight Solar Farm will be one of the largest photovoltaic solar projects in the world.

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Soitec’s CPV manufacturing plant to be built in San Diego this year

French semiconductor leader Soitec will open the doors to its first large-scale manufacturing facility for concentrating photovoltaic technology products by the fourth quarter of 2012. The company will be investing more than $150 million on the facility to be based in San Diego, California. It will manufacture Soitec’s Concentrix modules which use Fresnel lenses to concentrate and focus sunlight onto small multi-junction cells.

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Heliatek now looking into solar windows for its organic PV

German organic photovoltaics company Heliatek G.m.b.H. is now developing transparent solar films that can be put in between glass sheets of double glazed windows, thus integrating solar power into a potential building’s design. "[O]ur business model is to be the leading supplier of customized solar films to the building and construction material industry.

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AGL Energy, First Solar to build 159-MW thin-film project in New South Wales

Australian electricity and gas retailer AGL Energy and American thin-film solar company First Solar will be constructing a 159-megawatt solar plant in New South Wales. The thin-film solar project, to be built across two sites in Broken Hill (106 MW) and Nyngan (53 MW), will represent a total investment of 450 million Australian dollars ($445.7 million).

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Suntech, A.D.B. install largest rooftop solar system in Manila

The largest rooftop solar installation in the Philippines was installed by Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. on the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank in the capital Manila. The 571-kilowatt rooftop solar installation will generate more than 600 megawatt-hours of solar electricity and offset 307 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

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Nanosolar raises $70 million for its CIGS technology

California-based thin-film solar company Nanosolar Inc. raised $70 million in new capital to expand the production of their solar cells and panels. The funding came from new and current investors including OnPoint Technologies, Inc. Mohr Davidow Ventures, Ohana Holdings L.L.C. and International Family Offices.

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