The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has confirmed a 15.5% aperture area efficiency on commercial size flexible PV module (total area 1.68m2) from thin-film manufacturer MiaSolé. MiaSolé’s record represents over 2 points of improvement compared to the previous world record for flexible PV of 13.4% set earlier this year by SoloPower.
Almost a week after the preliminary determination announcement from the US Department of Commerce, organisations and corporations continue to make statements.
Hoku Corporation released a statement advising of the current state of the company, which included a confirmation that it had stopped all construction activity for its Hoku Materials polysilicon production site, which is not yet in commercial operation. As of March 31, the company estimates that it had nearly US$7.7 million in cash and US$278.8 million in liabilities, including US$74.4 million in accounts payable at Hoku Materials.
Developments in the South American market, particularly in Brazil, have created such a buzz that it will play host to Intersolar’s first South America Summit in São Paulo in August 2012. Countries in the region are seeing dramatic increases in energy consumption of up to 30% per year, chiefly as a result of industrial development. At the same time, in nations such as Brazil, solar power is currently on the brink of grid parity.
E-CL and Quiborax are teaming up to build a 2MW solar park, which will be the first to be connected to the Northern Interconnected System (SING) in Chile. The project will help provide electricity to mining development in the XV region of Arica and Parinacota.
Ideal Power Converters (IPC) advised that its 30kW PV inverter, IPV-30kW-480 had been confirmed by Intertek as conforming to UL standard 1741 and is now included on the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) list of approved PC inverter products. As part of the CEC list, IPC’s inverter can be installed in California and across the US.
Late last week, Vermont’s Governor Shumlin signed the 2012 Energy Bill into law, which among other benefits saw the state’s CLEAN Program expand from 50MW to 127.5MW. The bill outlines that the capacity of any distributed generation facility that provides “sufficient benefits to the operation and management of the electric grid” because of its location or other characteristics will not count towards the overall program cap of 127.5MW. Thus, this portion of the legislation mandates that no limit exists on the amount of clean local energy produced from facilities providing locational benefits.
In anticipation of others to follow suit, Taiwan-based Motech Industries will be offering a ‘Solar Cell Certificate of Origin,’ to customers wanting to avoid the newly imposed import tariffs on Chinese solar cells and modules. Motech makes c-Si solar cells in Taiwan, which are excluded from the import duties as well as having a module assembly plant in Newark, Delaware.
Kyocera has supplied 34MW of PV modules for a 127MW utility-scale PV plant in south western Arizona, the company has announced. The company will provide further modules, manufactured at its San Diego facility, for the project, producing through to 2013.
While some analysts are calling for calm and urging cooperation, the US head of SolarWorld has voiced confidence in the US Department of Commerce’s announcement for anti-dumping duties on Chinese imports of solar material claiming it will restore competition within the industry.
