S.A.G. Solarstrom has begun the construction of a 2.13MWp photovoltaic installation on the site of a former excavated soil in the town of Spaichingen, Germany. The company signed a contract with the town whereby S.A.G will work as system contractor while the town will lease the site to the future installation investor. Several purchase inquiries have already been received for the project.
The Spanish government has now confirmed the country's reduced feed-in tariff rate, which will be paid to new solar-power projects. Ground-mounted plants' tariff will be cut by 45% while residential rooftop systems will be paid 5% less than before. All existing installations will receive the tariff quoted at the time of connection, for the full period of 25 years.
Further to the news earlier this week that Etrion has acquired the final tranche of SunPower's 33MW Montalto plant, the two companies have signed an agreement to build two further solar power plants, totaling 10MW, in the Puglia region of Italy. SunPower will design and construct the plants, as well as providing operations and maintenance services for Etrion, which will own the system.
Statkraft is to sell its solar project company RA 2 to Innotech Solar's company, ITS Power. RA 2 owns the 3.3MWp solar project 'Borgo', which is under development in the municipality of Latina, 70km south of Rome, Italy. Borgo has now gained grid connection from Italian power company, ENEL. Innotech Solar anticipates the project to be fully operational by 2011.
Etrion has released its interim consolidated financial statements and related management discussion and analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010 and 2009. Highlights for the third quarter include closing the acquisition of the 24MW first tranche of the 33MW Montalto solar park in Italy - subsequently closing the final 9MW tranche - recording US$7.0 million in revenues and completing a US$15 million private placement of shares to meet Toronto Stock Exchange listing requirements.
SolarWorld is to submit a voluntary public takeover offer to the shareholders of Solarparc in a bid to acquire the company shares needed to continue forward integration into the global project business. SolarWorld intends to offer Solarparc's shareholders one SolarWorld share in return for each Solarparc share.
Sputnik Engineering has received the Frost & Sullivan 'Global Price Performance Value Leadership of the Year Award 2010'. The prize was presented to the Swiss company after a full product price, performance ratio, feature, user friendliness, service and customer orientation study was carried out in comparison with the main competitors in the inverter market.
Avantor Performance Materials is to change the name of Mallinckrodt Chemicals to Macron Chemicals in a bid to move further away from the former Mallinckrodt Baker identity. The rebranding, which will take effect from March 7, 2011, will not involve any product or manufacturing alterations.
FHR Anlagenbau, the wholly-owned subsidiary of centrotherm photovoltaics, is to supply several CIGS roll-to-roll coating systems to Leipzig-based Solarion. The systems, which are to be shipped throughout 2011, will form the central component of a 20MW annual capacity CIGS thin-film solar cell production system. Solarion is further planning to expand production to 180MW at the Leipzig site together with strategic investor Walsin Lihwa Corporation of Taiwan.
SunPower has revealed that it’s new headquarters will remain based in San Jose, CA. The company is to relocate to an existing three-building site on Rio Robles next year in order to accommodate long-term growth plans. By renovating the buildings, with a rooftop solar system and solar carport alongside other renewable features, SunPower aims to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification.
