First, Tessera Solar sold its 850MW Calico Solar project to K Road Sun in late December and now the company has announced that its 709MW Imperial Valley solar project has been bought by AES Solar, who, like K Road, intends to convert the CSP project into a PV installation.
CIGS thin-film photovoltaics manufacturer SoloPower has received a conditional commitment for a $197 million loan guarantee from the US. Department of Energy Loan Programs office. The company said the funds will support construction of a flexible thin-film module manufacturing facility in Wilsonville, OR, that, when completed and at full capacity, is expected to have an annual capacity of approximately 400MW.
Arizona Public Service (APS) is expanding upon its AZ Sun program with the development of a new 17MW PV facility in Gila Bend, Arizona. With the Paloma Solar Plant, APS’s AZ Sun program will have committed 83MW of solar capacity out of the 100MW it aims to finance and own upon the program’s completion, which is intended for sometime in 2014. First Solar was contracted by APS to design and build the Paloma Solar Plant and expects to have it online by September.
Monday night’s Cinema for Peace gala in Berlin saw Sharp Europe unveil its latest philanthropic venture – the ‘Sun and Stars’ project. The project will help supply electricity to some of the world’s most impoverished countries by financing and installing PV systems.
Enphase Energy has welcomed Dennis Hollenbeck as its new vice president of engineering; a role that will allow him to combine his 25 years of high-volume, low-cost system design and ASIC development experience and executive management skills.
SkyPower and Fort William First Nation have signed an agreement that will see SkyPower construct a 10MW solar park on First Nation’s land in Thunder Bay, Ontario. This is the first Canadian large-scale solar project, and is said to be the only, that is being developed on Fort William First Nation’s reserve.
The travel industry will become a little more “green” as Hertz has announced its solar initiative, which aims to install 2.3MW with sixteen solar systems at their facilities located in: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania by Q3 2011. The first project in the initiative, a 235kW solar electric system at the Denver International Airport, has already been completed and is anticipated to generate 342,766kWh of AC output.
Mark Roe, formerly of Apple, has joined SolarCity as its new vice president of operations. During his time at Apple Roe was senior director of worldwide service; a position which saw him manage global service operations for new product introduction, technical training, field support and feedback, service engineering and Apple Retail service among other functions.
IC Sunshine, a division of Axio Power Holdings, has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Hawaiian Electric wherein IC Sunshine will sell the utility electric power from the soon to be constructed 5MW solar farm in Campbell Industrial Park on Oahu. The PPA is awaiting final approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, but sports a 20-year contract price that is fixed with slight annual increases.
Southern California Edison (SCE) has signed a power purchase agreement with First Solar for its 250MW (AC) Silver State South plant. First Solar’s ground-mounted system, which will be located on 2,500 acres of public land near Primm, Nevada, will start generating electricity in 2014 and be fully operational in May 2017.
