The Rise & Shine is your daily source for all solar industry-related news.
California News
US Pledges Aid For Solar Program – The U.S. DOE pledged nearly $500,000 in grants and technical assistance to San Diego as to make the city a national model for solar power production.
Prop 7: A Bad Idea for Renewable Energy? – Opponents of the renewable-energy proposition have launched attack ads on TV, saying the California measure would present an obstacle to achieving the state’s clean-energy goals.
GreenVolts Breaks Ground on America’s Largest HCPV Plant - Located in Byron, California, about 63 miles directly east of San Francisco, Cart expects this first 1 MW phase to begin delivering electricity later this year to PG&E.
Power Plant Plan Scrutinized - City Council members in an East Bay town debate the pros and cons of building a power plant in Oakley that would add $800,000 in taxes to city coffers each year.
Utility Industry & Regulatory News
Xcel to Disclose Global Warming Risk - One of the country?s largest builders of coal-fired power plants will give investors detailed warnings about the risks that global warming poses to its business under a deal with New York?s attorney general.
PUC, National Grid Urged to Help Low-Income Customers - In a time with record high energy costs ? bills went up 21.7% during the most recent increase – there were also 17,504 utility shutoffs in RI through July, which is 10.4% higher than last year. 67% of those electricity customers had never defaulted on a previous payment
TEP Signs Deal to Buy Solar Power - Tucson Electric Power has signed a deal with SunEdison to finance, build, install and maintain 15 MWs of solar power in the next five installed at commercial and government ratepayer sites
CenterPoint Energy to Begin Installing Up to $125,000 Advanced Meters – CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, received approval to install 125,000 advanced meters and related equipment, which will be funded by retail electric providers.
Financial News & Markets
Angling for IPOs in Tough Times - More greentech companies have filed for IPOs in the last 2 months. But the markets have been less than kind to recent greentech debuts. Leading industry watchers are reluctant to call the increase a trend.
Markets & Market Research
Silicon Rally - New Energy Finance expects silicon output almost to double next year while HSBC expects shortages to last throughout 2009. HSBC predicts that the solar industry will grow by 45% a year until 2012.
Government & Politics
Obama: We Will End Dependence on Middle East Oil in 10 Years – Obama pledged that the U.S. will end its dependence on oil from the Middle East within 10 years which he says will create 5 million green jobs that can’t be outsourced.?
Technology
Day4 Energy Develops More Efficient And Cheaper Solar Cells – A major solar cell breakthrough was achieved by Day4 Energy which now claims that its technology will improve the solar cell efficiency by 19% and in the same time the costs will be decreased by 25%.
Optony: Where Thin Film and Concentrating Solar Meet - The idea behind Optony is to merge two of the solar industry?s low-cost options to produce solar power prices that rival grid parity concentrating and thin film.
ROFIN-SINAR and Manz Team on Thin Film Laser Edge Ablation Tool – The companies expect the new tool to reduce thin film production costs and improve yields. The new tool will be developed over the next twelve months.
International News
First Solar Extends Deal With PV Materials Supplier 5N Plus - First Solar has extended its agreement with 5N Plus for the supply of high-purity cadmium telluride and cadmium sulfide materials used to manufacture the thin-film PV market leader’s CdTe modules.
Amtech Systems Receives $7.5M Order Through Subsidiary Tempress – Amtech Systems announced that its solar subsidiary, Tempress Systems, has received a $7.5M follow-on solar order for its diffusion processing systems from an existing customer based in Asia.
Japan Market Update – METI announced plans to introduce subsidies for renewable energy including solar. While this program is not yet approved, if approved will be positive for SPWR, STP and Q-cells.
Suntech to Participates in Upcoming investor Conferences and Industry Events - Suntech management is scheduled to participate in the following upcoming investor conferences and industry events.
