The Rise & Shine is your daily source for all solar-industry news. Brought to you by Sweet Solar Home and the Experts at SunRun.

CALIFORNIA NEWS
1.1MW SunPower System in California Goes Live
Grundfos Pumps Corporation and SunPower Corporation have started production from a 1.1-megawatt solar power system at the Grundfos facility in Fresno.

Trinchero Family Estates Completes Installation of Solar Energy Systems
Trinchero Family Estates has completed the installation of a $5.3 million photovoltaic solar energy system at its new state-of-the-art winemaking facility in Lodi and nearby vineyard in Clements, California.

North Oakland Residents Get Help with Solar Panel Costs
Anyone who signs up through One Block Off the Grid’s Web site before the Jan. 31 deadline will receive a no-obligation inspection and an estimate. They then have two weeks to decide whether or not to take the offer.

Council Decides to Pay Cash
The Lemoore City Council decided to forego installment plans when it came to paying off the debt of the solar project at the Cinnamon Complex.

Gibbons Dedicates Solar Plant Near Boulder City
This morning, Mayor Roger Tobler ceremoniously flipped the ‘on’ switch during El Dorado Energy Solar’s dedication ceremony.

NATIONAL NEWS
SunEdison Acquires BISS
The transaction provides SunEdison with 38 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects under development in Italy and Spain and direct access to 300 MW of project opportunities in Europe.

Gatorade Goes Solar Powered
One of the largest customer-owned solar energy projects in Arizona, located at the Gatorade manufacturing and distribution facility in Tolleson, Arizona, has begun generating electricity.

The Worst Possible Greenhouse Gasses are Being Used to Manufacture Solar Panels
To get rid of PECVD or SiNx waste, gasses that contain fluorine are used. But this cleaning gas has a major impact on the environment – up to 22,800 times stronger than CO2.

ORNL Goes Solar with 288 Foot Span of Panels
The energy produced by the 288-foot stretch of solar panels along Bethel Valley Road will offset nearly half the power use in one of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s nearby research facilities.

UTILITY INDUSTRY & REGULATORY NEWS
Clean Power Leads New U.S. Electricity, says report
The U.S. Energy Information Agency just released “Electric Power Industry 2007: Year in Review,” and for the first time, renewables (not including hydro-electric power) led the way in new electric generation capacity in the U.S.

Smart Energy Trials Making Headway, but Still Early
Silver Spring and Greenbox say the results of the trial were “overwhelmingly positive,” and they said customers were pleased with greater control of their energy consumption.

FINANCIAL NEWS & MARKETS
MEMC Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results
MEMC has reported fourth quarter 2008 net sales of $425.7 million, which represents a decrease of 22.0% from third quarter 2008 net sales of $546.0 million, and a decrease of 20.6% from fourth quarter 2007 net sales of $535.9 million.

MARKETS & MARKET RESEARCH
BIPV Hotspots in Europe
A recent Frost and Sullivan report shows that the European BIPV market in 2007 was estimated at euro 143 million with a total installed capacity of 25.7 MW for the commercial, residential, industrial and public markets combined.

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
Tax Credit Fix for Solar in the Works
A plan to turn renewable energy investment tax credits into direct payments from the federal government is part of the stimulus bill being drafted by Congress, observers say. That’s a key policy wish for solar and wind power developers.

Green Stimulus Falls Short
Critics say funding to create a ’smart’ electric grid is not enough, and suggest that moves to thaw investments in renewable energy may not work.

TECHNOLOGY
The World’s Most Powerful Solar Panel
The DSO SUPER-PV, a 60-cell, standard-size, mono-crystalline photovoltaic-module with a 350 watt-OUTPUT rating, an incredible 160 to 200% power-output over industry’s top 220 watt-peak modules

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Revisions to Italy’s Conto Energia Could Spell Trouble for its PV Feed-in Tariff
On Dec. 3, an official of Berlusconi’s government announced changes to incentives for PV-generated electricity, something that could mean yet a third version of the country’s feed-in tariff.

Spain, Portugal to set up Renewable Energy Research Center
The Iberian Renewable Energy Centre in the southern Spanish city of Badajoz near the Portuguese border will help the two nations improve their expertise in this area.

As BP Closes Australian Factory, is its Global PV Plan to Expand or Exit the Business?
Is US-headquartered BP Solar climbing back up the PV manufacturing ladder? Or is this the first big step to a Shell-like exit strategy?

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 9:34 am and is filed under Solar Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.