May 14, 2008, 6:12 pm EST
[San Diego, California USA] First Solar dominates the Keynotes. The 33rd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC 33) opened on Monday, May 12, 2008, with two Keynote Sessions. Although I arrived on time for once, the conference was opened earlier than the planned 8:30AM start by Conference Chair, Dr. Timothy J Coutts. SEIA (Solar Energy Industries Association) President Rhone Resch’s forty minute address, The US Solar Revolution, highlighted Keynote Session I. As usual, the ITC or Investment Tax Credit extensions were the focus policies. The SEIA is seeking: 8 year, 30%, solar ITC extension for business 6 year, 30%, solar ITC extension for residential (eliminate the $2000 cap) AMT (Alternative minimum Tax) relief regarding the ITC Elimination of the public utility exception to the ITC With these polices in place, the SEIA and PVNews project US Solar market demand growth to 1590MW by 2010. Mr. Resch also announced a […]
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May 12, 2008, 11:15 am EST
[Menlo Park, California USA] Berkeley-Stanford CleanTech Conference on “Utility Scale Solar Power Generation” The 2nd Berkeley-Stanford CleanTech Conference, BIG Solar: “Utility Scale Solar Power Generation”, took place Wednesday afternoon, May 7, 2008, at SRI International. Although the agenda included keynotes and a first panel discussion on “California’s Policy Leadership“, my focus was on the second panel, “Innovations in Technology”, with presentations by Blog stalwarts GreenVolts and Cool Earth Solar (CES). For GreenVolts, I will highlight updates and deltas from GreenVolts presents at Alternative Energy Innovations 2007. For the PG&E GV1 project, the 1MW (MegaWatt) Phase 1 is now scheduled for completion by the end of 2008, one quarter later than indicated in GreenVolts does it again with 2MW Solar Electric Plant deal with PG&E. Bob Cart, founder and CEO of GreenVolts, Inc. said: The first megawatt we’re actually manufacturing right now for deployment later on this […]
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May 6, 2008, 2:06 pm EST
Installation scheduled for August 2008 completion. In Sol3g signs an agreement for building an 800kW installation in Flix (Español), Sol3g, S.L. announced an agreement with Flix Solar, S.L., part of grupo Finances Personals, for an 800kWp (kilowatt-peak) High Concentration PhotoVoltaic (HCPV) installation. Project developer Flix Solar has ordered 26,880 M40 Modules for integration with FEiNA SCP SC16 two-axis trackers at the Solar Park Ramón Escriche in Flix (Tarragona) Spain. The Solar Park Ramón Escriche has a system capacity of 8MW today on an area of 40 hectares (~98.8 acres) and is undergoing an expansion to 12MW. MPbata has performed project management for the solar park. For local Flix Blogs coverage in Spanish on the existing solar park, please see Flix posa en marxa el parc solar més gran de Catalunya and PARC SOLAR “RAMON ESCRICHE”. The Flix Solar deal is the largest project to date for Sol3g since it was founded in 2004. […]
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May 3, 2008, 12:17 am EST
[Newark, California USA] KGO Radio partners with PG&E to solar power their transmitter facility Back on February 12, 2008, KGO RADIO LAUNCHES SOLAR POWER ACTION PLAN announced a joint project between KGO Radio and PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) to power KGO Radio’s transmitter with two (2) solar power systems. KGO Radio’s transmitter is located here on the eastern side of the Dumbarton Bridge in the San Francisco Bay area. Installed by Premier Power, the first system consists of GE photovoltaic arrays ground mounted by and roof mounted on the transmitter buildings. The second system will consist of three (3) SolFocus, Inc., CPV (Concentrating PhotoVoltaic) solar arrays. KGO Solar Transmitter Project: Work in Progress The KGO Solar Blog by Art Lebermann has tracked progress on the installation since the announcement. The KGO Radio Solar Project was supposed to be completed by mid-March 2008, but the project has been delayed by SolFocus as first noted in Progress Report on […]
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April 29, 2008, 11:49 am EST
The sample material is about four to five months later than expected. In Solarvalue Achieves Important Milestone for Silicon Feedstock Production (Deutsch), Solarvalue AG (FRA:SV7) claimed: its Silicon Feedstock Pilot Facility located in the United States is now fully operational and that silicon has successfully been processed and purified. Initial analysis show that the innovative process using tailor made equipment is able to reduce impurities by using unidirectional solidification. This milestone was achieved about two months after the “Small scale production laboratory”, morphed into the “Silicon Feedstock Pilot Facility”, began operations as described in the previous post, Solarvalue AG Solar Grade Silicon sample Lab “Oratory”. Here are some key points to consider regarding this milestone: The “Pilot Facility” capacity remains on the order of 10’s of kilograms scale. The sample material was tested at an unnamed “well known independent materials characterization laboratory in the United States”. The sample material has not been used to make silicon […]
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April 25, 2008, 12:14 pm EST
Incremental updates to photovoltaic conferences and events in 2008 This update supplements the original post, Photovoltaic Conference and Exhibition Preview 2008. Intersolar 2008June 12-14, 2008 (PV Industry Forum 2008 June 10-11, 2008)Munich (München), Germany The detailed two day program for the PV Industry Forum is now available. In addition, Solar Promotion has added the 1st Solar Thermal Industry Forum (http://www.solarthermalindustry.de) on June 11, 2008, although the afternoon program is still being flushed out. SEMICON West 2008 / Intersolar North America 2008July 15-17, 2008 ExhibitionSan Francisco, California USA Intersolar North America Draws International Participation cites the success of the exhibition in attracting international exhibitors. In order to free up additional exhibition space, the comprehensive conference program has been moved to the InterContinental Hotel adjacent to the Moscone West Convention Center. Besides the “very special symposium session”, “Solar Gigawatts for Europe – Status Perspectives European Solar Markets and Industries”, the conference program includes the following […]
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April 22, 2008, 1:10 am EST
Requires California Utilities to pay for excess solar electric (and wind) power generation. Under the California Solar Initiative (CSI), net metering limits your electric bill to near zero even if your photovoltaic system generates more power than you consume. AB 1920 corrects this situation by forcing utilities to compensate photovoltaic system owners for any excess solar electric power generated. In effect, the electric bill can go negative with a credit for the system owner. AB 1920 is a bill authored by California Assembly member Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) as a result of entries by his constituents in the 2008 “There Oughta to be a Law” contest (see Huffman Watch: Our Assemblyman at Work). AB 1920 can be summarized as follows: AB 1920 (Huffman): Renewable Energy Incentives – Net Metering Enables residents who produce renewable energy for their homes, small businesses or farms to get paid by their utility […]
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March 30, 2008, 7:17 pm EST
Where are the photovoltaic posts? Sticking with the personal nature of the Blog format, I wanted to inform readers, subscribers, and friends that I was hospitalized after an auto accident in early March. As a result, I expect regular Blog posts to resume later in April 2008. Alas, my healing and physical rehabilitation have not progressed enough for me to cover PHOTON’s Photovoltaic Technology Show 2008 Europe and the 6th Solar Silicon Conference in Munich (München), Germany. And I was really looking forward to this event and meeting many new photovoltaic and silicon folks.
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March 3, 2008, 2:32 am EST
End the ITC (Investment Tax Credit) Myopia and expand the United States Solar Policy agenda. With the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC 2008, Agenda) coming up this week, it seemed appropriate to jump into the US solar policy and incentive debate. Repeated lobbying efforts by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the US national trade association for the solar industry, have failed to pass an extension to the solar Investment Tax Credit in last year’s Energy Independence and Security Act and the recent Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. Future SEIA efforts continue to focus on the myopic pursuit of the elusive ITC extensions. Please see Solar Sharpens Weapons for Incentive Battle and Solar Industry’s Five-Step Plan for background information. Per Renewable tax credits likely to run out, leaving investment at home hanging by Chris Morrison at VentureBeat, the inside scoop is the ITC extension will not happen until the next US Presidential […]
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February 29, 2008, 2:13 am EST
Production starting in the second half of 2008? Solarvalue issues Annual Report for 2007: Small scale production laboratory starts operations – prove of process abiliy initiated (Deutsch) was the news yesterday, February 28, 2008, from Solarvalue AG (FRA:SV7). Solarvalue AG Chairman and CEO Claudia Boehringer said: In the last few months we have built our own laboratory size production facility in the US. This facility has recently started operations directed at testing metallurgical grade silicon from a variety of potential suppliers, as well as evaluating the ability of the Solarvalue production process to refine this purchased silicon into solar grade silicon in our Slovenia plant. We expect to produce the first small quantities of solar grade silicon samples in the very near future. Besides the Annual Report 2007 (Deutsch), it does not seem as though much has changed since the Solarvalue AG Analyst Conference at the 8. Forum Solarpraxis. As I reported back […]
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