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
University of California Awarded Grant to Research Solar Energy
University of California at Merced along with UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, was awarded a five-year $2.25 million grant that will fund a solar energy research program.

First Solar Inks 550MW Deals with Socal Edison
Edison plans to buy power from two solar farms to be built by First Solar in Southern California.

LADWP Contracts for 55 Megawatts of Solar Electricity
First Solar will design, engineer and construct the 55MW Niland project using its advanced thin film solar modules. Construction is expected to begin next year and be completed in 2011.

Sacramento’s Power Failure
With lawmakers distracted by the state’s financial difficulties, the renewable-power standard could fall through the cracks again, even though it is widely considered this year’s most important piece of environmental legislation and has been subjected to intense committee scrutiny since March.

Pacific Power Management Provides 1MW of Solar Power to Gonzales Winery
The 1 Megawatt power plant is now generating solar power for the Gonzales Winery which is owned by Constellation Wines U.S. (CWUS), the world’s largest maker of wine by volume.

groSolar Amps Up Solar Power in Sonoma County
Sonoma’s Financing Program and groSolar’s Group Rebate Make Now the Time to Go Solar.

NATIONAL NEWS
Hey, you, Solar Company! Shove it: The Solar Tipping Point
I want to encourage everyone in the solar PV industry, especially module manufacturers, to push past the tipping point.

Home Energy Plan Spreads Out Costs
Empowered by recent changes to local, state and federal laws, municipal governments from Long Island to the Bay Area are launching programs to help residents purchase efficient furnaces, weatherize their homes and put solar panels on their roofs.

New Priorities for Our Energy Future
Harnessing our large supply of natural gas—plus developing wind, solar and biofuel energy sources—is essential to achieve three strategic national priorities:

Alteris Renewables Named to Top 10 in Energ on Inc. 500 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies
Alteris attributes tenfold sales growth over four years to customer service excellence.

First Solar Ramps Up US Utility Deals
Here’s some of First Solar’s public U.S. utility deals, including the one announced this morning with Southern California Edison.

Pace Global, Standard Solar Form Strategic Alliance
This alliance builds on Standard Solar’s existing success in the solar energy markets and will comprise a team with proven project origination and execution skills, global industrial experience, and supported by the necessary capital to expand quickly.

SunEdison Begins Construction on North Carolina Solar Plant
SunEdison LLC has purchased a 356.7-acre site in North Carolina and initiated construction on a planned 18 MW solar photovoltaic facility.

MARKETS & MARKET RESEARCH
Spain’s Solar Market Cash Offers a Cautionary Tale About Feed-In Tariffs
For a brief, shining moment, Spain was the best solar market in the world.

Sun Rises in Spanish Power Sector: Renewables Go Up and Emissions and Electricity Prices Go Down in 1st Half of 2009
Heikki Willstedt, Energy Expert for WWF Spain, recently released her analysis of the Spanish power sector, finding that renewables have continued to grow, with solar power making particularly significant ground.

Clean Energy Safer for Workers
New research finds that switching to a renewable energy system based on sun and wind would provide safer working conditions and prevent more than 130 job-related deaths in the United States each year by significantly reducing the need for mining.

UTILITY INDUSTRY & REGULATORY NEWS
Another Record for U.S. Renewable Electricity
The latest figures from the Energy Information Administration show that net U.S. electrical generation from renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) reached an all-time monthly high in May 2009.

FINANCIAL NEWS & MARKETS
Yingli Green Energy Posts 2Q Loss on Charges
Shares of Yingli fell 12.5 percent, or $1.47, to $10.27.

Barclays Maintains Expectations for Yingli
Barclays said in a research note that Yingli should nearly double its shipments of solar products in the third quarter.

TECHNOLOGY
Suntech Achieves World Record Conversion Efficiency for a Multi-Crystalline Module
Suntech announced that it has achieved a new world record conversion efficiency of 15.6% on a commercial grade multi-crystalline silicon PV module.

Solar Uptake for Cell Phones Still ‘Limited’
Solar technology in mobile computing devices is still impeded by performance and price issues and isn’t likely to entirely replace batteries anytime soon, according to analysts.

Nanospears Could Lead to Better Solar Cells
Growing – and precisely aligning – microscopic, spear-shaped zinc oxide crystals on a surface of single-crystal silicon, researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology may have developed a method to make more efficient solar cells.

Scientists Show How to Stack the Deck for Organic Solar Power
A new class of economically viable solar power cells has come a step closer to reality as a result of recent work* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Toshiba Awarded Order for Multi-MW PV Project
The multi-MW PV project will have a 7.5MW capacity and will be the first industrial-use photovoltaic power generator operated by Chubu Electric. The plant is scheduled to come on line in autumn 2011.

Scheuten Solar Supplies Modules to Greek Project
Scheuten Solar strengthens its presence in the Greek Market with 1 MW project Scheuten Solar announces the start for the supply of Scheuten Multisol® modules for the project in Greece.

New Polysilicon Facility Starts Up in China
centrotherm SiTec, in which centrotherm photovoltaics has bundled its silicon expertise since autumn 2008, created the factory concept, developed the process flow, and provided assistance for planning and implementation.

Durham College Powers Carmanah Solar Technology
Durham College is using solar technology to help conserve energy and reduce electricity costs at its Whitby, Ontario campus.

Renewable Energy Deal Gets Green Light
Wind farms and solar panels are set to take over Australia after politicians agreed on a historic deal to boost clean energy.

DEGERenergie Equips 3MW Solar Park in Sicily with Trackers
DEGERenergie has announced that it will deliver 2,660 of its TOPtraker 8.5 trackers to Sicily by the end of the year.

Asian Solar Firms Outshine Their German Competitors
Germany’s solar power industry, until recently the world leader in the technology, is facing an unprecedented crisis, analysts say, outshone by cheaper competitors from Asia, most notably Chinese firms.

German Solar Firms Are Preparing for Joint Partnerships in Uganda
Even with the abundant renewable solar energy potential in Uganda, only a handful residents have access to it, thanks to their poor marketing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 7:01 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.