It appears concerns over market consolidation and the changing incentive landscape affected Intersolar North America more than many had hoped. Around 22,000 visitors and 850 exhibitors were expected at this month’s exhibition in San Francisco. However, the reality was closer to 18,000 visitors and 757 exhibitors, compared to last year’s 20,000 visitors and 839 exhibiting solar companies which was a 30% growth from 2010. On a more positive note, Intersolar claims that approximately two thirds of the exhibition space has already been booked for the 2013 exhibition and conference.
Ethiopia will receive solar systems to connect rural areas to the grid, according to 2merkato reports. Chinese and British solar companies have signed agreements with the Ethiopian government to develop PV arrays ranging from 8kW to 130kW to power rural villages.
Infigen has been chosen to construct a 1MW PV plant with integrated storage, the company has announced. The Capital East solar farm will be built in New South Wales (NSW) and it will be the first in Australia to be registered with the National Electricity Market (NEM) as well as Infigen’s first PV project in operation.
FLEXcon and Unconquered Sun Solar Technologies are partnering to bring a more eco-friendly solution to the sport of golf. FLEXcon provided its FLEXcon multiGUARD KPE W12 backsheet and its FLEXmount DFPEF 32 Black V-778 200 POLY C2S tape solution for the manufacturing and installation of solar panels onto golf carts as part of Unconquered Sun Solar’s solar golf car conversion kits.
Mecasolar noted that it had received orders to provide its solar trackers for 56 PV projects in Greece, representing a 52% increase in six months. In June the company reached an agreement to deliver 351 solar trackers to Greece, 229 of them being dual-axis and 122 being single-axis.
Responding to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Energy Highway Initiative, Renewables Biz has reported that Entecco has submitted a project proposal for a PV or CPV project with a size up to 2,000MW that will be built in Seneca County, New York. Entecco’s Central Solar City (CSC) project would potentially be the largest single solar hub of its kind in the US.
AETI's (American Electric Technologies) ISIS 1MW solar inverter has been witness-tested to UL1741 by TÜV of North America. The integration of 1MW of liquid cooled power inverters with a 1MVA transformer and medium voltage switchgear, is aimed at reducing field installation costs. SEMV (Socios Energeticos de Mexico Verde) has selected AETI to a solar project in Mexico. Contract terms were not disclosed.
Bechtel Power has chosen Unirac to provide a PV system for the 110MW AC Catalina PV project in Kern County, California, the company has announced. The company will supply the Catalina PV park with a ground mounted system, installed on a 1,100 acre site. Unirac manufactured the system specifically for the project, which is expected to be completed in 2013.
The Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has increased the country’s target of installed solar energy from 15GW to 21GW by 2015, it has been reported. According to an IMS Research report, China’s installations will exceed 4GW in the second half of 2012. The increase will further stimulate the domestic PV market at a time when the European market is expected to decrease. IMS Research reports that China’s capacity of c-Si modules will reach 32.6GE in Q1 ’12, even though the full year forecast for global installations is only 30.6GW.
According to the US Department of Commerce’s latest release of the ‘U.S. Imports of Merchandise’ database, solar-based products from China declined around 45% in May, compared to the same month a year ago. The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) claimed that this decline represented a positive impact of the recent anti-subsidy duties and anti-dumping duties applied to Chinese solar cells as users have therefore become concerned over the risks and uncertainties as well as cost issues of using Chinese modules for installations in the US.
