Solar Millennium’s week has started with a low as the company revealed that its US subsidiaries and investment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Furthermore, the company’s former CEO, Utz Claassen, is suing the company, and certain of its subsidiaries, for US$265 million, claiming harm by defamatory statements to the public and press after he retired in March 2010.
Solar Frontier supplied approximately 29,400 CIS thin-film modules to a 3.8MW Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) installation in Burlington County, New Jersey. Mill Creek Solar Farm is part of PSE&G’s Solar 4 All scheme, aimed at adding 80MW solar electric generation capacity to the company’s capabilities by the end of 2012. Mill Creek Solar Farm was designed, developed and built by juwi solar.
Air Products has completed and brought onstream its hydrogen selenide (H2Se) facility expansion at its electronic specialty materials manufacturing facility in Hometown, PA, USA. The newly expanded high-purity H2Se facility will serve the growing demand from the CIGS market for the compound, which is provided by Air Products to semiconductor and PV customers at more than 99.99% purity levels.
AQT Solar advised that its Sunnyvale production facility had transitioned to a fully automated WIP management system, run by Sapphire Automation’s Emerald software platform. AQT noted that it had partnered with Sapphire in order to improve its equipment utilization and planning in order to ramp up its technology development and deployment cycles.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek has reported that R. Todd Neilson, a forensic accountant and former FBI special agent, has advised in a recent report filed with the US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, that Solyndra communicated truthful information about its finances to the government before it claimed bankruptcy last year.
Suniva, Georgia-based solar module manufacturer, has announced that it will supply 2,892 of its 280W modules to a solar installation at the Bonnie Brae residential treatment centre for adolescent boys. Torcon Energy Services (TES) will install an 810kW ground-mounted PV system on Bonnie Brae’s campus, after the institution initiated some changes around campus to become more sustainable.
NexPower Technology, Taiwan-based thin film manufacturer, is supplying thin film modules to one of the largest PV projects in the New Jersey area, a ground mounted installation generating 10MW of energy. Construction is expected to begin soon.
A 684kW PV system for Fort Hood’s Liberty Village military housing has been activated, the US Army base’s leadership announced.
Axium Solar installed the 3,000 Schott Solar ground-mounted PV panels on a four-acre site. Universal Services Fort Hood (USFH), owner of the project, provided funding of US$3 million and will operate and maintain the installation.
Canadian deputy minister Fareed Amin sent an update on Ontario’s two-year review of its FiT program, announced in October 2011, to the ministry of energy. The changes to Ontario’s renewable energy scheme include a 20% cut to the FiT for solar and a 15% cut to wind power. All other renewables will remain at the current level. Tariffs will be adjusted annually each November and will take effect on January 1 the following year, inline with market conditions. Prices ill be set once a contract is offered rather than when a project application has been sent to the relevant department.
First Solar has sold the 50MW Silver State North solar power plant to Enbridge, the two companies announced today. First Solar has installed more than 800.000 PV modules on a site of 600 acres in Clark County, Nevada under a fixed-price EPC agreement and will be providing operations and maintenance services to Enbridge.
