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
Solar Group-Buying Program Comes to San Diego
1BOG Teams with groSolar to Duplicate San Francisco Success.

CaliSolar Set to Complete a 50MW Factory for UMG Silicon Solar Cells
The California startup plans to expand its factory to 200 megawatts by the end of 2010, said its CEO Roy Johnson. The company’s solar cells could achieve 16 percent efficiency.

SF Solar Energy Incentive Program Shines Bright in First Year
In the year since our solar energy incentive program GoSolarSF launched, we have seen a 450% increase in applications for solar installations in San Francisco over the previous year.

Seal Beach is Now a Free Solar City
The Seal Beach City Council voted unanimously Monday night to eliminate solar permit fees to encourage more residents to generate their own green electricity by installing rooftop panels on their homes.

NATIONAL NEWS
Intersolar: Most of U.S. Solar Market to Reach Grid Parity by 2015
Travis Bradford on Monday said that the research group forecasts that two-thirds of the U.S. market (by electricity sold) using photovoltaic systems will be at grid parity by 2015.

BLM Seeks Input on NV Solar Project
The Bureau of Land Management has opened a formal public comment period on issues and concerns to be addressed in an environmental study for a proposed solar energy project in southern Nevada.

ABQ Will Soon Have a Loan Program for Solar Energy Systems Aimed at Easing Upfront Costs
New Mexico’s largest city has made quick work of legislation passed earlier this year to boost consumption of renewable energy. The key component allows municipalities to create special districts through which loans for installation of the systems are made to property owners who then pay off the loan through a property tax assessment rather than through making monthly loan payments.

UTILITY INDUSTRY & REGULATORY NEWS
Intersolar: 5 Reasons Utilities Want to Build Their Own Solar Projects
It’s difficult to determine whether the traditional approach is better than utility-owned generation for a given project, but here’s at least five good reasons why a utility would want to own solar projects.

MARKETS & MARKET RESEARCH
Drawing Fire, China Seeks Dominance in Clean Energy
China is shielding its clean energy sector while it grows to a point where it can take on the world.

Intersolar: A Mid-Year Review of a Tough Market
The solar conference is offering more programs and in-depth discussions of all things solar at a time when solar panel prices are falling and solar thermal power is gaining more utility customers.

FINANCIAL NEWS & MARKETS
Q Cells Reports Preliminary Second Quarter Results
The prolonged weak development of the global photovoltaics markets has continued to negatively impact the business development of Q-Cells SE in the second quarter. The seasonal market upturn which the industry had been anticipating to start in the second quarter has broadly not materialized for Q-Cells as yet.

TECHNOLOGY
Xantrex Expands GT Series Inverters with Two Australian Models
The GT Single Phase product line has been expanded to include two new models, the GT2.8-AU and GT5.0-AU, designed specifically to meet the requirements of the Australian market.

ENN Solar Energy Launches New Silicon Thin Film Solar Modules With Tandem Junction Technology
The oversized modules can be used for a variety of applications, from utility scale ground mounted solar parks to integrated roof or facade solutions, classic large rooftop installations or solar covered carports and shading structures.

Solar Cell Production Process Optimization Solutions Announced
The Thin-Film Photovoltaics Laboratory at IMT and BrightView Systems are joining forces to introduce novel solutions for the optimization of next generation thin-film solar cells production.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Firms Pursue Solar Power from Sahara
A group of 12 European companies agreed to push forward on a solar-power project intended to feed electricity to Europe from the Sahara.

LDK Solar Acquires Controlling Interest in Italian System Integrator
Chinese wafer manufacturer, LDK Solar today announced the acquisition of a controlling interest of Solar Green Technology S.p.A. (“SGT”), an expert system integrator in the Italian market.

Foresight Signs Project Financing for 6MW Puglia Solar Project
Leading Italian EPC contractor Ecoware has been contracted to construct the project which is expected to benefit from the attractive 20 year conto energia Italian solar feed in tariff

SOLON Signs 40MW Agreement with Statkraft
SOLON SE has concluded a framework agreement on the construction of photovoltaic power plants with Statkraft AS, Norway’s biggest energy generator, for a total output of 40 MWp.

Suntech Gets Four Big Solar Projects in China
Suntech said on Monday it struck the 1.8 gigawatts of solar power deals with the governments of Shaanxi and Qinghai provinces as well as the Shizuishan and Panzhihua city governments.

Abengoa Solar Joins Desertec Industrial Initiative
This project seeks to develop renewable energy production in the desert regions of Northern Africa and the Middle East for both local use and for exportation to Europe.

Andalucia Government Launches SmartCity Plan
The project is to be carried out in Malaga, specifically in the city’s Playa de la Misericordia section, for the benefit of 300 industrial customers, 900 services providers and 11,000 households, over a period of four years.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 7:14 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.