Trina Solar to Supply Solar Modules to SunEdison
Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL) ("Trina Solar" or the "Company"), a leading integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic (PV) products from the production of ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of PV modules, today announced that its subsidiary, Trina Solar (U.S.) Inc., has signed a sales agreement to supply solar modules to SunEdison, a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. ("MEMC").
Under the terms of the agreement signed with MEMC, Trina Solar is expected to supply SunEdison with approximately 35 megawatts (MW) of PV modules over the remainder of 2010. The modules are expected to be utilized by SunEdison for projects in North America and Europe.
"This collaboration once again demonstrates Trina Solar's ability to partner with leading U.S. solar industry players to create effective PV solutions in the U.S. market," said Mr. Sean Tzou, Chief Strategy Officer of Trina Solar. "Combining Trina Solar's high-quality modules with SunEdison's leading solar project capabilities, helps our company to further increase market share, diversify our sales base and enhance recognition of our brand globally."
Source: prnewswire.com
TSL Chart:
Short Term and Long Term trends seem to point up. Trina Solar is still beating the performance of the whole bearish market in these last months.
Labels: solar charts, Solar News, Solar Stocks, Trina Solar, TSL
Free solar power - too good to be true?
You can generate energy at home for FREE and have solar panels at no extra cost.
YOU know the old adage – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So when Consumerwatch heard that solar panels were being fitted for free, we immediately asked: "What is the catch?"
For those who simply want to realise a dream by becoming more self-sufficient in terms of energy, then there is no catch.
You get to help the planet by harnessing sunlight that in turn cuts your bills – an average three or four bedroom house would save £150 on electricity, according to the Energy Saving Trust.
The company benefits as it gets to cash in on any extra electricity that you generate and fail to use by selling it back to the national grid.
Feed-In Tariffs (FIT) work out how much green energy has been pumped back into the national pot.
And it seems that this is where the real money-making potential lies for anyone investing in sun energy.
Continue
readingLabels: solar cells, Solar News, Solar power
First Solar to Invest $81 Million Building Factory in France
First Solar Inc. is investing 66 million euros ($81 million) to build a factory near Bordeaux in France to produce solar panels, La Tribune reported, without saying where it got the information.
Half the cost will be funded by the renewable energies unit of French power company Electricite de France SA, the newspaper said.
Source: Bloomberg
Labels: First Solar Inc, FSLR, Solar News, Solar Projects, Solar Stocks
Solar plane set for night flight
A solar-powered plane is getting ready to hit the skies once again - this time, at night.
It will be the first ever manned night flight on a plane propelled exclusively by solar energy.
Solar Impulse will lift off from an airfield in Switzerland, on a sunny day sometime at the end of June.
It will then fly around, charging the solar cells on the plane's wings, in a bid to store enough energy for the electric motors to last until dawn.
The aim of the project's founders, Andre Borschberg and round-the-world balloonist Bertrand Piccard, is to show that a solar-powered craft is able to fly day and night - and eventually long-distance flights - without any fuel.
SourceLabels: solar cells, Solar News, solar plane, Solar power, Solar Technology
Japan Solar Sail
Today the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is set to launch the first spacecraft that will speed across the solar system using a hybrid solar sail—one propelled partly by solar pressure, partly by traditional solar power.
Dubbed Ikaros—for Interplanetary Kite-Craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun—the experimental craft will launch from the Tanegashima Space Center at 5:44 p.m. ET (6:44 a.m. Tuesday, local time).
Ikaros is hitching a ride into space aboard an H-IIA rocket, piggybacking with JAXA's Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter mission.
Once in space, the cylindrical, 677-pound (307-kilogram) craft will separate from the rocket and spin itself to unfurl its roughly 46-foot-wide (14-meter-wide) solar sail. (Related blog: "Tiny Solar Sail Pitched to Clean Up Space Junk.")
First proposed in the 1920s, solar sails are large reflective membranes that allow a spacecraft to be pushed by radiation pressure from sunlight, negating the need for heavy onboard fuel. (Explore a time line of space travel milestones.)
"It's the space equivalent of a yacht sailing on the sea," said Yuichi Tsuda, deputy project manager for Ikaros. Like wind filling a boat's sails, particles of light—or photons—streaming from the sun bounce onto a mirrorlike aluminized solar sail.
As each photon strikes, its momentum is transmitted to the spacecraft, which begins to gather speed in the almost frictionless environment of space. A solar sail can eventually reach speeds five to ten times greater than a rocket powered by conventional fuels.
Source:
National GeographicLabels: Japan, Solar Energy, Solar News, Solar Technology
Solar-powered boat
Solar-powered boat Türanor raises hopes of a sun-fuelled futureConsidering its 85 tonnes and its potential to shape the future of maritime travel, the launch of Türanor was a surprisingly reserved affair. The world's largest solar-powered boat made a gentle plop as it was lowered by a huge crane on to the waters of the Kiel firth in northern Germany today, and triggered the polite applause of onlookers – mainly fishermen and shipyard workers. "We've made it, she's safe, and she floats," whispered its owner, Immo Ströher, with tears welling in his eyes.
But the real challenges for the gleaming white catamaran still lie ahead, as its makers seek to use it to prove that the sun can fuel our world.
Next year, after an intense testing phase, Türanor – the name, inspired by JRR Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, means "power of the sun" – will embark on her maiden voyage, a round-the-world trip during which her two-man crew will attempt to chase the sun in order to capture as much available solar power as possible and navigate her at an average speed of 7.5 knots.
Ströher's granddaughter christened her today by smashing a bottle of champagne against her teak deck, and pronouncing: "May you always have plenty of water under your bows, and sun on your deck."
SourceLabels: Solar News, solar panels, Solar Technology
Chevron tests solar technologies in Bakersfield
A demonstration energy project in Bakersfield aims to figure out which of several technologies works best to convert energy from the sun into usable power. KPCC's Molly Peterson reports on an announcement by the Chevron company.
Think of Chevron's project as an 8-acre science experiment. The test the company's announced includes sevent kinds of solar panels – 7,700 altogether – that different companies have developed.
Six of them demonstrate thin-film photovoltaic panels. Thin film technology uses semiconductor material like silicon spread out microscopically in a sheet to convert the sun's energy to power.
The seventh uses incredibly tiny crystals of silicon to do the same thing. All seven of the different solar companies have the same conditions under which they can prove how much energy they generate.
Chevron plans to compare their performance to an eighth technology, a commonly available solar panel like the kind many southern Californians have on their roofs. The company will use the energy produced to power Kern River Oil Field operations. Chevron will sell extra energy back into the grid.
SourceLabels: Solar News, Solar Stocks, Solar Technology
LDK Solar Acquires Best Solar's Crystalline Module Manufacturing Plant
LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (NYSE:LDK - News), a leading manufacturer of multicrystalline solar wafers, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the crystalline module manufacturing plant of Best Solar Co., Ltd. ("Best Solar"). Under the terms of the transaction LDK Solar will acquire Best Solar's crystalline module manufacturing plant at cash consideration of $21.5 million, representing the fair value of the assets acquired determined on an arms-length basis.
"This acquisition will significantly enhance LDK Solar's position in the downstream PV market," stated Jack Lai, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Secretary of LDK Solar. "LDK Solar has been fulfilling the majority of its solar module needs through purchases from Best Solar over the past three quarters. We look forward to realizing cost efficiencies by bringing crystalline module manufacturing in-house.
SourceLabels: LDK, LDK Solar, Solar News, Solar Stocks
Silicon Valley makes big push into solar and smart-grid technologies
Cleantech's vast ecosystem includes a dizzying array of emerging technologies, from green building materials to electric vehicles, lighting and wind power. But as Silicon Valley reinvents itself as a global center of clean technology, two sectors — solar power and "smart" upgrades to the electric grid — already are reshaping the valley and changing the way energy is produced and used.
The Bay Area is believed to have the nation's largest concentration of cleantech jobs, and much of that job growth has been in solar and smart grid, technologies that leverage the valley's formidable strengths. Next 10, a nonpartisan think tank, estimates that the Bay Area now has about 7,000 jobs in renewable energy alone.
"The skills that have been put to such good use in the valley with chips — engineering the processes to be more efficient, bringing costs down — are now being applied to solar," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, who wants to create 25,000 new cleantech jobs and cut the city's per capita energy use in half by 2022. "And in order to make a smart grid smart, you've got to collect an enormous amount of information and manage it and network it. It's a huge market opportunity for what companies here are already doing."
Source:
Mercury NewsLabels: Solar News, Solar Stocks, Solar Technology
Solar Power: Sunshine's Cloudy Days
These news seem contradictory, but according to some data, 2010 has made a good start, with demand filling all the supply from some major solar manufacturers, but these 'Cloudy Days' are referring to the 2009 over supply of solar panels, that is still a reality to many companies.
Mike Ahearn, chairman of the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels, had every reason to party in September. That's when his company, First Solar, based in Tempe, Ariz., was picked by China to build what promises to be the world's biggest solar-electricity plant: a Manhattan-size facility in Inner Mongolia providing 2 gigawatts of power, about twice the size of a large coal plant or average nuclear power station. But the Chinese facility will take years to build, and the party buzz subsided pretty quickly. The next month, Wall Street analysts downgraded First Solar's stock after the company missed its third-quarter revenue target. "I think the Wall Street perspective is pretty short-term," says Ahearn.
That's true, but it's also true that, while photovoltaic cells that turn sunlight into electricity may play a potentially vital role in weaning the world from fossil fuels, a transition will take decades — and the business metrics surrounding the solar-power industry currently are anything but bright. After a period of rapid expansion, panel manufacturers today are reeling from a pronounced supply surplus, falling prices and stagnating sales. In 2009, industry revenue plunged by nearly 40% to about $25 billion from $40 billion the previous year, according to BankAmerica Merrill Lynch alternative-energy analyst Steven Milunovich. Solar-panel output far outstripped demand last year; manufacturers made 66% more product than they were able to sell, estimates research firm iSuppli located in El Segundo, Calif. Some analysts believe the dismal conditions will persist into 2011,
Read more:
Time.comLabels: First Solar Inc, FSLR, Solar News, Solar Stocks, Solar Technology
China To Launch 2-GW Solar Power Project
A large-scale contract has been signed between an American solar power company and a Chinese power systems producer in this respect.It will result in the setting up of solar thermal power facilities on several locations in China that will produce more than 2 GW of power.
The agreement was reached last week in the Chinese State Council building, will join U.S. solar power plant developer eSolar to Penglai Electric for implementing what is expected to be China's biggest concentrating solar power project so far.
The first round of the program, which will build a solar power facility that will be operated by Chinese Shaanxi Yulin Huayang New Energy Company and will produce 92 MW of power, will start this year.
SourceLabels: China, Solar News, Solar Projects, Solar Stocks
Adami: Looking for heat in solar space
We mortified some but educated many by writing about Hans Christian Andersen and the opportunities in the solar space on Dec. 18. On that day we highlighted First Solar (FSLR), JA Solar (JASO), and Trina Solar (TSL) as three ways to participate in the sector. Since then enough things have happened to warrant an update.
On Dec. 21 First Solar and NRG Energy announced the start of commercial operation for the photovoltaic solar project in California. Of course, the very next day Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced legislation to protect 1 million acres of land in the Mojave Desert. Not surprisingly, the headlines generated by Feinstein's bill were not exactly bullish for the solar names.
...
Hershey also said FSLR recently withdrew its application for a 150-megawatt project in San Luis Valley, Colo. She noted that about 70 percent of First Solar's revenue comes from Germany and is worried that a change in tariff policy could lead to a drop in orders.
However, she did leave her EPS forecast at $6.28 for this year. Placing a 20 multiple on the stock gets you to her price target of $125.
SourceLabels: First Solar Inc, FSLR, Solar News, Solar Stocks
Sharp, Enel, STMicro to jointly make solar cells
Japan's Sharp Corp (6753.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said it will set up a joint venture with Enel (ENEI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) and STMicroelectronics (STM.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) by March to make solar cells in Italy, in a bid to further tap the strong growth potential of renewable energy sources.
Consumer electronics maker Sharp and Italian utility company Enel in 2008 announced their intention to make thin-film solar cells with a European manufacturer, but they did not identify the third company.
The venture plans to start producing solar cells in early 2011 at STMicroelectronics' existing facility in Sicily at an initial output capacity of 160 megawatts a year, which will eventually be raised to 480 megawatts.
In addition to bank loans, each of the joint venture partners will invest up to 70 million euros in the project, Sharp said in a statement.
The venture will be owned a third each by Sharp, Franco-Italian chip maker STMicroelectronics and Enel Green Power, an Enel group company.
SourceLabels: Sharp, Solar News, solar panels, Solar Stocks, Solar Technology
First Solar: 1 billion watts served
First Solar has produced and shipped 1 gigawatt's worth of photovoltaic solar systems for 2009, the company announced Wednesday.
Hitting the gigawatt mark--the equivalent of 1,000 megawatts or 1 billion watts--is significant as it shows a drastic rise in production and consumer interest. First Solar, which makes cadmium telluride solar cells and panels, produced only about 75 megawatts in 2007, and between 420 megawatts and 460 megawatts in 2008, according to the company's own statistics.
But the leap shouldn't be a surprise: the solar company has been signing massive deals with municipalities over the last year. In March, First Solar announced that it had acquired the rights to complete about 1,300 megawatts worth of utility-scale projects that its rival OptiSolar was unable to finish. Then in August, First Solar signed a deal with Southern California Edison to supply solar modules for a 250-megawatt solar power installation for Desert Center in Riverside County and a 300-megawatt installation in San Bernardino County.
CNET
Full ArticleLabels: First Solar Inc, FSLR, Solar News, Solar Stocks
Key Developments For Suntech Power Holdings Co, Ltd
Suntech Power Headlines in Reuters.com:
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. Signs 17 MW Deal With Ontario Installer-ReutersTuesday, 1 Dec 2009 06:08pm EST
Reuters reported that Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. has landed a 17 megawatt supply deal for 2010 with Canada's Pure energies, the Company said. Under the deal, Toronto-based Pure energies, which installs, leases and operates solar power systems, will market and use Suntech's panels for residential solar systems in Ontario. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The companies said in a statement their memorandum of understanding continues through 2011.
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. Tie Up In 115 MW Sales Deal-ReutersTuesday, 3 Nov 2009 07:51pm EST
Reuters reported that Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. will sell 115 megawatts worth of solar panels in 2010 to EDF Energies Nouvelles. The panels will head to enXco's projects in the United States and Canada for rooftop and utility-scale projects, enXco in a statement.
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. Collaborates With AEDB To Deliver Solar To PakistanThursday, 15 Oct 2009 06:30am EDT
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. announced that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Pakistan's Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) to work towards the widespread use of solar energy technologies to meet the energy shortage in Pakistan. The objective of the MOU is to facilitate cooperation between Suntech and the public sector and private companies in Pakistan to help implement solar programs including the AEDB's Rural Electrification Program; the development of Solar Power Pumping Systems with the AEDB and the World Bank; and Solar Power Telecom Projects in collaboration with Pakistani telecom companies. The MOU sets forth the agreement in principle of the parties concerning the project and related activities. Final agreement between the parties is subject to the negotiation and execution of definitive agreements among the parties.
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. Launches 60 Cell Module For Residential and Commercial Rooftop SystemsMonday, 21 Sep 2009 02:00am EDT
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. announced the introduction of a 60 cell multi crystalline PV module to be marketed under the product name Wd. The new Wd module series features positive peak power tolerance of 0/+5 watts, which will assure that all Wd modules will produce at, or outperform, the nominal power rating.
Full ArticleLabels: Solar News, solar panels, Solar Projects, Solar Stocks, STP, Suntech Power
Egypt eyes solar power exports, costs too high now
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt, which plans to start its first solar power unit in 2010, said on Tuesday it wanted to expand solar power production for export but that costs of the technology would need to fall first to make it feasible.
The North African country, a gas and oil producer, aims to generate 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. It already has installed wind capacity of 430 megawatts and is adding 120 megawatts by mid 2010.
Wind farms are expected to meet 12 percent of Egypt's power needs by 2020 but solar power projects have lagged.
"Solar energy is four times as expensive as energy generated from combined cycles so when this figure starts going down to three or two times as much, this is when we will see developing countries go heavily into the business," Electricity and Energy Minister Hassan Younes told Reuters.
Source: Reuters
Labels: Solar News, Solar power, Solar Projects
Suntech vs. Sanyo - The Solar Panel Battle For Japan
Interesting article below, if you want more info on Sanyo you can check the ADR trading in the states,
SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. (ADR) on Google Finance.
On energymatters.com.au:
Suntech and Sanyo, two leading manufacturers of solar panels, have been beating the corporate drums recently over their plans to increase market share in Japan.
Sanyo last week announced a goal of becoming the top manufacturer in the expanding Japanese solar panel market by 2013 by winning a 40% slice (in megawatts).
Aside from its Japanese roots and reputation for quality, Sanyo is pinning its hopes on its HIT solar panel technology to give it an edge in the local market. The Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer (HIT) solar cell is a hybrid model that combines a crystalline silicon substrate and an amorphous silicon thin film. According to the company, it offers the world’s highest power generation level per installation area due to superior energy conversion efficiency and temperature characteristics.
On the same day as Sanyo's announcement, Suntech Power Japan Corp, a unit of Suntech Power Holdings Co., announced it will begin selling solar power generation systems for new homes early next year.
Full ArticleLabels: Sanyo, Solar News, Solar Stocks, STP, Suntech Power
Sanyo develops solar cell that’s thinner than hair
Sanyo is in the news today, and again it’s about the company’s green tech power. The company today announced [JP] it will do everything to become Japan’s top player in the domestic solar industry by 2012 and eventually one of the top three solar companies on a global level. At the same time, the Nikkei reports [registration required, paid subscription] that Sanyo has succeeded in developing a solar cell that’s thinner than a human hair.
The company says it will benefit greatly from a new feed-in tariff program by the Japanese government introduced this month for green energy firms. Another factor for Sanyo’s self-confidence should be the speed with which it innovates. Their new prototype solar cell is just 58 micrometers thick, about one-fourth of most solar cells currently out there. (
Source:
Techcrunch: CrunchGearLabels: Sanyo, Solar News, solar panels, Solar Technology
Pre-market is up for solar stocks
Jobless data is up ahead and Solar Stocks are up in the Pre-Market about an average of 1%.
And a quick look at the Solar Stock Sector ETF TAN:
Claymore/MAC Global Solar Index 
Some Suntech Power Holdings (STP) News:
Suntech's solar products in short supply
Suntech Power Holdings' (STP.NYSE) solar products are in short supply due to their premium quality, said Shi Zhengrong, company chairman and CEO.
Shi Zhengrong said that the company had about a 30 percent photovoltaic (PV) module overcapacity in the first half of this year, but that the situation has been changed since July, and production capacity cannot meet the market's demand.
According to Shi, there is no overcapacity in China's solar energy industry, but the market requires high-end and high quality products, and that Suntech has already sold all of this year's products.
Suntech had produced solar PV cells with conversion efficiencies of approximately 19 percent on mono-crystalline PV cells and 17 percent on multi-crystalline PV cells, which set the new benchmark for the highest performance multi-crystalline module, said Shi.
He also stated that solar energy will account for about 30 percent of the world's energy by 2050, and by the end of the century, the figure have risen to 70 percent. Therefore, the company remains committed to developing solar energy.
Source: TradingMarkets.com
Labels: solar ETF, Solar News, Solar Stocks, STP, Suntech Power
First Solar sizes up project sales, Solarion beams plastic CIGS, MiaSolé decloak
Solar Short Takes on pv--tech.org:
This edition of Solar Short Takes does a bit of number crunching of the recent project sell-off news from First Solar, checks progress by Solarion on the CIGS-on-plastic front, notes MiaSole’s recent re-emergence from the PR closet, finds Trina saying yes to MES, questions Applied Materials’ buy of Advent Solar, and offers the aloha lowdown on next year’s tropically inclined IEEE PVSC event.
The sale of the 21MW (AC) Blythe PV power plant to NRG marks the second move by First Solar to cash in on some of its hundreds of millions of potential dollars in project assets, following the announcement in early October to sell off the 20MW Sarnia, Ontario, site to Enbridge.
Both projects, when completed by the end of 2009 (yup, that's right--First's Alan Bernheimer confirmed they'll be done next month), will be among the largest active PV systems--and certainly thelargest thin-film arrays--in North America. Florida Power & Light’s recently activated crystalline-silicon-powered 25MW DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center--which made me smile even before I had my morning coffee when I saw President Obama speaking at the center on CNN last month, with its thousands of solar panels lined up behind him--is the biggest in the States, at least for now.
Two more projects in First Solar’s pipeline will come online by the end of 2010 that will dwarf the Florida installation—the 30MW (AC) ground-mounted system being built for electric power supplier Tri-State in New Mexico and the 48MW (AC) added to the existing 10MW at the Sempra Boulder City/Copper Mountain site in Nevada. Although double-digit megawatt-scale PV systems remain rare, especially in North America, in a few years they will become more commonplace and triple-digit beasts will start to colonize the earth.
Since a Short Takes blog would not be complete without mention of the copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide TFPV community, congrats to German CIGS-on-plastic company Solarion for successfully (and internally) testing its flex cells under the rigors of the IEC 61646 damp-heat test regimen--a thousand hours at 85% relative humidity and 85°C. Solarion’s main polymeric competitor, Ascent Solar, made a similar announcement in August. These results as well as recent updates from Global Solar and several materials companies suggest serious progress is being made on the main bugaboo of flexible CIGS—a manufacturable, relatively inexpensive yet durable moisture encapsulation layer.
...
SourceLabels: CIGS, First Solar Inc, FSLR, miasole, Solar News, Solar Projects
