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’s Property Tax Bills to Fund Solar Work
Oakland has become the latest city to allow residents to finance solar panels, insulation, new refrigerators and other efficiency improvements through their property tax bills.
Going Solar at Cut-Rate Cost
The Dickinsons are getting a 23 percent discount on solar panel installation arranged by One Block Off the Grid, an Internet-driven group that in a year has become the nation’s largest solar-buying collective. In its short organizing campaign in Los Angeles, the firm has already assisted 102 clients.
Akeena Solar Names Effren, Randazzo to New Positions
Akeena Solar Inc., an installer and manufacturer of solar power systems, has promoted Gary Effren, currently chief financial officer, to president and promoted Margaret Randazzo, currently controller, to chief financial officer.
NATIONAL NEWS
Sopogy Inaugurates Solar Thermal Plant
Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii – Sopogy, Inc. inaugurated a MicroCSP™ Solar Thermal Plant today at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii.
UTILITY INDUSTRY & REGULATORY NEWS
‘Smart’ Electric Utility Meters, Intended to Create Savings, Instead Prompt Revolt
Customers in California are in open revolt, and officials in Connecticut and Texas are questioning whether the rush to install meters benefits the public.
Connecticut Utility Smart Meter Tests Show Mixed Results
Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) launched tests of various smart metering technologies to gauge customers’ response earlier in 2009. Some were unable to show any efficiency gains while others worked well.
MARKETS & MARKET RESEARCH
Amorphous Silicon: Staking a Claim in Solar Market
A number of amorphous silicon thin-film startups recently announced sales and project deals. But can they survive?
Chinese Manufacturers Eye Thin Film PV Market
Increasingly thin-film photovoltaics (PV) operations are popping up across China, indicating active development in this sector, which is expected to provide affordable solar power and be used widely in the future.
AT Kearney Says Solar Power a Key Change for Mena Countries
AT Kearney, the global management consulting firm expects that solar power will become cost competitive in the near future as rising costs for oil and gas make renewable energy sources increasingly attractive.
Southern European PV Markets Poised to Boost Industry
With the Spanish market limited by regulatory hurdles, Italy and France are moving the European photovoltaic industry forward by contributing significant growth in the near term.
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
DOE Issues Final Rule on Loan Guarantees
The revised rule will allow for increased participation in the program by financial institutions and other investors. Chu said that this will enable the support of more innovative energy technologies in the United States.
US Reveals Fund for Green Tech in Poor Nations
The White House on Monday announced a new program drawing funds from international partners to spend $350 million over five years to supply developing nations with clean energy technology to curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce global warming
US Offers $85M to Promote Efficiency
The United States will contribute $85 million over the next five years to a $350 million effort by industrialized countries to help spread efficiency and low-carbon energy sources in the developing world, the energy secretary was expected to announce Monday..
FINANCIAL NEWS & MARKETS
SunRun and US Bancorp Expand Partnership to Finance an Additional $90M in Residential Solar
This new funding is in addition to the first round of project financing provided by U.S. Bancorp in November 2008, one year after SunRun launched the nation’s first residential power purchase agreement (PPA).
TECHNOLOGY
REC and ECN Achieve New Record for Multicrystalline Solar Panels
REC and ECN (Energy Research Center of the Netherlands) have together made what the company’s say is the world’s first multicrystalline solar panels with 17.0 percent efficiency.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Adjustable Rates for Germany’s FIT
As Germany experiences a boom in solar energy installations, its newly elected government is looking at adjusting its solar electricity rates more often than what the current policy dictates.
Germany Shows Government Role is Key to Thriving Solar Industry
The nation has become the world’s top leader in solar energy precisely because it did not leave the task of harnessing the sun to solely the private sector.
Germany May Cut Solar Subsidies, Minister Tells Handelsblatt
The German government will “adjust” subsidies to solar energy producers to make the industry more flexible and responsive to market demands.
Kerself Connects Another 5 MW of Photovoltaic Systems
Italian system integrator, Kerself S.p.A., says its Saem subsidiary has connected an additional 5 MW of photovoltaic fields in the region of Puglia: 4 MW for Italian municipal utility Acea and 1 MW for Avelar Energy.
Conergy Inaugurates 4.2 MW Solar Park
Conergy Germany GmbH last week, together with Jost de Jager, Minister for Science, Economics and Transport in Schleswig-Holstein, opened a 4.2 megawatt solar park in Hörup near Flensburg, the largest solar park in northern Germany.
LDK Solar Signs Module Supply Contract With Enfinity
LDK Solar has signed a contract to supply solar modules to Belgium-based Enfinity. Under terms of the agreement, LDK Solar will deliver approximately 50 megawatts (MW) of solar modules to Enfinity in 2010.
OPEL Applies for Extension of Warrant Expiry Date
OPEL International has filed an application with the TSX Venture Exchange (“TSXV”) to extend the expiry date of 7,500,000 Series P Warrants from December 13th, 2009 to December 13th, 2011.
