Rise & Shine: June 23, 2009
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
Oakland Green Jobs Corps Grads Get to Work
The inaugural class of a nine-month job-training pipeline program in Oakland that provides “green-collar” skills training and jobs to young adults with barriers to employment will graduate today. Students learned solar installation skills.
Official Hopes to Bring Solar Program to SBC
A San Benito County supervisor is working on a potential program that would use federal stimulus funds to pay up-front costs on a solar energy partnership while offering incentives to citizens who install the systems.
Renewable Power Solutions Unveils Low-Cost, 1.2KW Solar System
Renewable Power Solutions announced today the immediate availability of a 1.2-kilowatt solar system for less than $5,000 after California state rebate incentives, tax credits and first-year energy savings.
NATIONAL NEWS
Solar Energy Project Appears Headed for Defeat
Air Force opposes placing equipment near Nevada base.
Big, Big Solar Coming to West Texas
CPS Energy will announce a deal to buy solar power from a West Texas solar project to be build by Tessera Solar using technology from Stirling Energy Systems.
Winery Shows Off Solar Panels
Pfeiffer Winery owners gave folks a tour Sunday to show how the winery is going green.
How One Homeowner Netted $4.12-a-month Electric Bill
Scheps is Lafayette, LA’s first resident to generate all of her electricity from solar power.
Qyandot’s Solar Plant Will be the Largest East of the Mississippi
The plant will consist of 160,000 solar panels and cost over $30 million. It will be capable of generating 10.3 MW of power.
How NJ Rose to #2 in US Solar Power
Making this achievement more remarkable is that in 2001 New Jersey had only six PV installations, and now there are nearly 4000 generating >85 MW.
Xunlight Completes First Installation of Roll-to-Roll PV Equipment
This is the first of Xunlight’s full-scale production lines to be installed in its Toledo, Ohio, facility.
SCI Receives $1M Thin Film Order
SCI says it began developing additional products for thin-film solar in 2006, following several years as a materials supplier to that growing market.
FINANCIAL NEWS & MARKETS
Whither Thin Film?
Something is happening in Europe today that could put a damper on thin film’s meteoric rise: banks and project lenders are refusing to finance projects using thin-film modules
MARKETS & MARKET RESEARCH
Industry Group Says Solar to Become Cost-Competitive in Italy Next Year
By next year electricity from solar photovoltaic panels will be cost-competitive with power from the grid in parts of southern Europe.
Solar Could Fall 8% Per Year, Be Competitive in Italy by 2010
A report by the European solar industry association says deploying smart grid technologies and energy storage devices would boost solar energy generation from less than 1 percent of the power supply today to 12 percent by 2020.
Energetic Plans in Italy
Italy’s households and small companies are turning to mini-renewable power-generation projects to combat some of Europe’s highest electricity tariffs.
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
Starting a New Energy Diet
The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress are planning an attack on the country’s polluting, consumptive ways. The goal is to prod Americans to curb their energy consumption more sharply than they have since the early 1980s.
TECHNOLOGY
For Solar Cars, It’s All About Curves
Gloria and a major European automaker have signed an MOU, all thanks to Gloria’s design of a curvy solar panel for the rooftop of small cars.
Satcon Delivers Fully Integrated Utility Class One Megawatt Power Conversion Solution
Satcon announced today the general availability of Prism®, a fully integrated one megawatt medium voltage solution optimized for utility scale solar PV installations.
TUV Rheinland Opens New test Lab in Cologne
The new location offers technology for inspecting photovoltaic modules and solar thermal collectors and systems.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Residents Told of Solar Power Benefits
Next April the Greenwich, UK government is due to introduce an incentive which means homes will get paid for the energy their solar panels generate.
GCL-Poly to Buy China Solar Firm
Energy company GCL-Poly Energy Holdings said Tuesday it was buying a Chinese maker of solar-power materials for $3.7 billion.
Sanyo to Spend $83M to Lift Solar Cell Capacity
Japan’s Sanyo Electric Co Ltd said it would spend ¥7.9 billion ($83 million) to boost its solar cell output capacity by 26%, as the company tries to keep pace with bigger rivals.
Astronergy Launches First 10MW Phase of 100MW Solar Power Station in China’s Ningxia Autonomous Region
Initially covering two square kilometers in Shizuishan City in the arid Gobi Desert region, which receives on average 1,600 hours of sunlight per year, the project is expected to be completed within three years.
LG Display Set to Invest US $39M in Thin-Film Solar Business
LG Display Co. Ltd. announced plans to focus its R&D capabilities on a thin-film type solar cell and nurture it as a future growth driver.
AU Optronics to Purchase Stake in M.Setek
AU Optronics Corporation today announced its decision to subscribe new shares to be issued by M.Setek, which is a major polysilicon and monocrystal silicon wafers manufacturer in Japan.
Zouk and Next Energy Capital Invest in a 2MW Italian Solar Project
zouk ventures ltd and Next Energy Capital are making a joint investment in a 2MW development-stage photovoltaic solar project in Puglia, Italy.
Yingli Supplies Modules for 9MW Solar Energy Plant in Slovakia
Chinese solar cell manufacturer Yingli Green Energy Holding yesterday signed a contract to supply crystalline photovoltaic-solar modules to a 9-mW power plant in Slovakia this year.
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