Solar Power Link Bonanza!

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Despite publishing about 35 articles on solar power in the past week, there are still a ton of big solar news stories we couldn’t get to but that we wouldn’t want you to miss. Here’s a quick summary of them:

25MW California Solar Project Now Under Construction: SolarWorld has broken ground on the 25-megawatt (DC) Desert Star Solar Projects in California’s Mojave Desert.

1st Distributed Solar Utility: Principal Solar, Inc is on its way to creating the world’s first the distributed solar utility. The company this week “announced the acquisition of a 3.5MW solar project slated for Andover, Mass. from SunGen and R&D Solar.”

Solar Panel Trade Case in EU May Lead to Trade War: I think Andrew did a great job the other day covering the new WTO investigation in China dumping solar PV in the EU. Ian Traynor of the Guardian continues on with that story in a discussion about the potential trade war that could result from it all.

Largest East Coast Solar Provider Hits 1 MW: I think it’s a testament to the wonderful distributed nature of solar power that the “largest full-service residential solar provider headquartered in the eastern United States” has only been contracted for about 1 megawatt of solar power. (Of course, it’s also a testament to how far we are behind Germany, Italy, and other leading solar power countries.) Nonetheless, kudos to Astrum Solar for hitting 1 MW.

Solar Inverter Output to Increase from New Partnership: Well, so says the companies that formed the new partnership. REFUsol, “a manufacturer of the highest efficiency solar inverters,” and Ampt have teamed up “to provide commercial and utility-scale inverters that lower photovoltaic (PV) system costs and maximize inverter output power.” Sounds good to me — how about you?

Trina Solar Expands into Latin America: Trina Solar, one of the top solar PV companies in the world (and one of the Chinese PV companies under a bit of threat from the US and EU solar trade cases) is now stepping into the Latin American solar market. Last week, it announced “a new Santiago, Chile, sales and business development presence.” From Santiago, the company will be offering solar PV products to commercial, utility, and off-grid customers throughout Latin America, but its focus will be Chile, Mexico, Brazil, and “neighboring countries.” (With South American glaciers rapidly disappearing, I’m sure folks down there will appreciate the solar push.
 

 

Jurupa Unified School District to Save $34 Million from New Solar & Energy Upgrades: As just another example of how solar and energy-smart upgrades can help you to save money, it was announced this last week that “a 2.7 megawatt solar and energy efficiency program [is] expected to reduce energy costs at 27 school sites and save the District more than $34 million.” The school district, in case you were wondering, is just west of Riverside, California; it serves about 12,000 students (grades K-12).

Suntech & Solarstrom AG Sign 26MW Contract: Suntech, another world-leading solar PV company at the center of the solar trade cases mentioned above, and Solarstrom, a German PV company, have signed a contract involving 26 megawatts (MW) of monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar panels. The solar panels will be sold from Suntech to Solarstrom for some new power plants in Germany.

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