BP Solar Park in Kothen, Germany, still going strong

One year one, the BP Solar supplied 45 megawatt Köthen Solar Park is still going strong. One of the top ten solar plants in the world, the Köthen Solar Park is one of the largest featuring string inverters (smaller inverters distributed throughout the plant, rather than a central inverter. More than 205,000 BP Solar modules happily power the local network of the...

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NSW Govt Pauses Feed-in Tariff

NSW government announced today, retrospectively, that applications for the feed-in tariff will be on hold from midnight LAST night (midnight 28 April). No guidance has been given as to when new arrangements will be announced. [Edit August 2011 – the link listed is now dead on the NSW government website, but we now link to a progressive tally of the buildup to 300MW http://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/energy/sustainable/renewable/solar/solar-scheme/faq/customer

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California houses with solar worth more

Source: Solar Daily News just in : researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have recently used the results of a house pricing study to confirm what many have thought for some time: Solar PV on rooftops attracts the attention of buyers, and a premium. In the Solar Daily article, the lead author Ben Hoen elaborated was excited to be amongst the first to confirm this using scientific methods. “We find compelling evidence that solar PV systems in California have boosted home sales...

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Big Apple goes Big Solar

Solar energy solves problems from Tibet to Tinseltown – And now, the city of New York has found a unique solution to the problem of what to do with landfill sites under regeneration – cover the sealed landfills with sixty megawatts (60 MW) of solar generation systems. This installation is part of the ambitious ‘PlaNYC‘ , a vision for the type of New York citizens want to see in 2030.  In announcing  the solar project, Mayor Bloomberg highlighted that the solar installation could cut emergency generators dependence,...

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Conergy Solar panels win again

Solar energy is taking off in Thailand, with Conergy AG winning yet another deal. According to this solar power article, Conergy has achieved an Asian milestone by signing up investors to a 17MW plant in the South East Asian nation.

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Conergy racking used in massive 1.7MW plant

Conergy Corporate Headquarters, Hamburg, Germany: Conergy AG has successfully completed the installation of the Canary Islands’ largest Solar PV plant, being 1.7MW in total capacity employing 7,600 Conergy PowerPlus Modules. It is expected that the reasonably flat panel installation will produce approximately  2,600 megawatt hours of electricity per year. A feature of the installation was the Conergy Suntop III mounting hardware used by Greenforce Energy. More than 15 kilometrs of Conergy mounting systems, comprising both the Conergy...

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New technique speeds cell production

Netherlands, Delft — TU Delft has demonstrated that the speed at which relatively inefficient but inexpensive amorphous solar cells are produced can be increased by a factor of ten. This means more solar panels can be produced per day from a given capital investment. Whilst the basic production technique used was developed by Eindhoven University of Technology; Michael Wank’s project, which was subsidised by Agentschap NL, used a special method to overcome the disadvantages of heat introduced in the original Eindhoven project. The...

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Westinghouse combines brand strength with Solar

Many large names such as Bosch, Sharp and BP have been involved with solar for a while. The pioneer of alternating current electricity distribution, global conglomerate Westinghouse has been dipping their toes in solar for a short while, and recently unveiled a large area solar panel with a tiny inverter built in. Subsidiary Westinghouse Solar, a designer and manufacturer of solar power systems, wowed critics with their second-generation AC solar panel – contrasting with the DC panels on the market. Similar ideas were initially trialled...

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Boeing goes solar

(summary of news from Associated Press, CNN, ABC) Not content with using solar power on its satellites, and energy saving carbon-composite panels on its new Dreamliner, the Boeing Company has decided to completely cover the roof of its Dreamliner assembly centre with solar panels. The more than 18000 thin film laminate panels will be laid flat on the surface, and are expected to provide up to 2.6 megawatts of electrical generation capacity — enough to power about 250 homes. It will be the sixth largest solar installation by...

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Chinchilla solar project to cut coal consumption

The largest solar thermal project in Australia is coming to Queensland’s rural town of Chinchilla. Many residents in nearby areas already use solar thermal technology in their rooftop solar hot water systems. The Federal government in partnership with the state government have approved one of the biggest solar thermal projects in the world and confirmed funding to build a solar energy system on the site of an exisiting coal-fired power station near Chinchilla in Queensland. This type of arrangement is known as a complementary or hybrid...

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