Exports of US solar products to China delivered a surplus of US$913 million in 2011, despite the demise of America's module manufacturing and Chinese government support for its renewables industry, according to an influential report released today.
Hurricane Sandy exposed the fragility of the US power grid. It also revealed a potentially vital new role for PV in future emergency events, says Felicity Carus.
First Solar has said that it has contacted Abound Solar's trustees to begin discussions whether it can recover materials from up to 100,000 panels made by the bankrupt cadmium telluride (CdTe) module manufacturer.
A leading German technical and engineering testing company launched a US subsidiary, called VDE Americas, in San Jose, California, to evaluate performance yields at PV power plants in the US, Canada, Mexico and Latin America.
Feed-in tariffs (FiTs) have been popular all over the world and have transformed some solar markets. But the US has remained stubbornly resistant to the power of transformational policy, with utilities treating them with the same hostility as net energy metering.
SolarCity's IPO earlier this year looks like a ray of light amid some pretty cloudy weather in 2012. The solar shakeout continues to gobble up companies like a collapsing sun. The peak in consolidation IHS researchers say will come from 2013 can't come soon enough for many in the industry.
