Solar PhotoVoltaics – Page 21

Three PV solar parks were constructed in Romania

Romania’s solar capacity increased after the contraction of three PV solar parks was finished by Et Solar group. The parks have the combined capacity of 28 MW. So, an increase of 48 MW was made over the last eight months, after the company installed a total of 50 MW this year.

The solar parks are owned by Romania’s top electricity supplier and trader. The new PV systems are located in Targu Carbunesti, Gorjcounty, and Simnicu de Sus, Dolj county.

The PV modules were provided by ET Solar Group and the engineering procurement and construction services and the financing also were supplied by ET Solutions AG, its Munich-based subsidiary to be precise. The ET Solutions’ Romanian branch will be in charge of operations and maintenance.

ET Solar Group president and CEO Dennis She says that “the achievement of grid connection for these three photovoltaic plants is a result of seamless coordinated work among our team in Munich and Bucharest”. “It further demonstrates that we are transforming ourselves into a global EPC company. We are committed to further growing our project solutions business to other emerging markets.”

Romania had only 2 MW PV capacity in the last October, so the industry has come a long way in this country. However it was not easy. The Romanian government imposed new measures in June which were meant to frighten foreign investors. Between them is one ordinance that is meant to disapprove two out of six six green certificates given to photovoltaic energy producers per megawatt hour fed into the national grid. The Romanian energy regulatory Authority will still assign PV solar plants plants six green certificates but repress two of them until March 2017.

Roxana Moraru

Siemens solar division will close down

The solar division from Siemens will shut down after they failed to sell the unit that has not been functioning for nine months.

The company would be shut down production and the division according to sources from the company. Yet still, current ongoing projects will be completed and warranty obligations will be fulfilled, as announced by a company spokesperson.

As a result, 280 people will loose their jobs. The majority of them are located in in Israel, where the solar thermal subsidiary Solel Solar Systems, a Munich-based group operates.

Siemens spokesman To

Wolf also claims that “the current and future market for solar receivers remains low. As a result, it was difficult to agree on a business plan for a sale that took into sufficient account the interests of both the buyer and seller.”rsten Wolf said that „After seven months of intensive sales efforts for the solar thermal business, it’s clear that due to the increasingly difficult market situation, no investor could be found for the business.” He also announced that the company was unable to reach an agreement that “provided due consideration for the interests of customers, employees, investors and Siemens.”

The latest engineering company, Siemens, purchased Solei in 2009 with $418 million. The group has reported $1 billion losts and Siemens put its solar unit on the block.

Roxana Moraru

New 4.5 MW solar park accomplished by the german Conergy in France

Today’s Conergy realization is a solar park for the financier UEM, the local energy producer and framework operant, sheltered on an area of 9.5 hectares with the capacity of 4.5 MW.
This project holds 18,000 Conergy “P Series” units, it is situated in La Fare-les-Oliviers of Southern France, and will provide about 6,500 MWh annually, or plenty electricity to sustain about 1,800 homes.
Although the market is difficult and the price competition is forceful, the german provider Conergy continues to accomplish and provide for projects in European investors from Greece, Spain and Portugal. It also remains active in Southeast Asian markets like Thailand.
Conergy did not only provide PV units, but also brought to operation the design and installment for the entire project. In addition, it will carry on its involvement in sustenance and functional administration for the solar park.
Along with this project, Conergy backed up Sunlap in the building of two carport plants in La Fare-les-Oliviers with “P-Series” units and IPG15T inverters. It will sustain almost 127 MWh annually.

Conergy’s Managing Director Philippe Pflieger revealed a positive point of view. “With its decision to increase both, market volume and subsidies, the government has given a boost to the solar sector. Although the economic situation in this country remains tense, we believe that these steps will restore a good outlook for solar energy in our country.”

Roxana Moraru

$27.2 billion to invest in PV market in five years

The global PV materials market will double until 2018. Lux research says the main reason is the improvements of the supply demand balance. The global demand will be represented by materials differentiation and innovations.

Taking into account last year’s investments, the PV material market will grow from $17.8 billion to $27.2 billion by 2018. Part of that sum, $12.8 billion to be precise, is formed of witih metals, including polysilicon and metallic absorber materials. A $6 billion raise is due to the global demand of silicon modules.

Lux Research analyst, Fatima Toor announces that “differentiated materials that enable high cell or module efficiencies or longer lifetime will be able to earn a premium and cash in on the growing demand.”

Toor also said that the need of improved quality may lead to materials innovations that could lower the price per watt as well as the price per kilowatt hour.

Materials such as backsheets, non-EVA encapsulants, metallization pastes and antireflection coatings can also lead to material innovations.
Moreover, effective planning and implementation of the module quality can be the source of opportunities for materials developers.
Roxana Moraru

Solar modules will have new switch-off solutions produced by Bosch

Bosch is in the process of developing new switch off solutions design for solar modules. The new products will be presented at the Intersolar trade fair.

The new solutions for both commercial and residential applications are optimizes for module electronics, particularly module junction boxes and control units.

The automatic switch-off is very useful in hazardous situations. Another advantage is the voltage-free state, meaning that the owners can have the modules installed and not risk electric shocks.

In case of main supply shutdown, intelligent electronics in every junction box guarantee the self-regulated switch-off of the entire system and its distinctive modules. This function can also be called up with a control signal from an exterior emergency switch. The new Bosch idea is distinct by initializing an automatic following restart as soon as the problematic situation has stopped. By this, the production is ensured once the situation ended.

After passing a large number of tests and being used in the field, prototypes have affirmed their strong capability.

All basic solar module types can benefit from the innovative solutions. In fact, the automatic switch –off can be installed without rebuilding the machines, in most cases. Moreover, the new product designed by Bosch Solar Energy matches with a handful of industrial standards and codes that where formerly introduced.

At the Intersolar trade fair, where the new concept will be promoted, Bosch will also showcase new black premium solar module, the white high-performance module and the new frame concept.

Roxana Moraru

Polysilicon prices are to go up a little

The price rising is happening because of the anti-dumping tariffs China is set to establish on the polysilicon from the EU, U.S.A. and South Korea. According to IHS the new prices will not affect the industry.

The last IHS Polysilicon Price Tracker report also shows that the weight of the increase will be limited by market factors.

The stratagem could bring the global solar polysilicon pricing up to $19.50 per kilogram in June and July, while in May the price was $16.50.

The flood was unexpected in the market as the prices were going down in the last 10 months.

Despite all this, the report shows only an 18% increase, “falling short of the 30% indicator that would represent a major market correction. Prices also would remain below the key $20-per-kilogram mark.”

China was “likely to impose anti-dumping tariffs with rates ranging from 30 to 50% on polysilicon imported from the European Union, the United States and South Korea. However, the impact of the duties will be mitigated by factors including long-term agreements that stabilize pricing as well as efforts by buyers and sellers to bypass the tariffs”, announced Glenn Gu, senior analyst, photovoltaics, at IHS.

The report also predicts that global manufacturing overcapacity of solar-grade polysilicon will not allow sustainable local price spikes, although the local production us protected.

Roxana Moraru

Import charges for PV products will be raised up to 67.9% by August

Further details regarding import charges have been released by the European Commission on the crystalline photovoltaic imports from China. By August, there is a possibility that Chinese companies will be confronted by contingent charges of an average 47.6% if they fail to reach an agreement with the EU.

Such measures will be taken on August 6 by the European Commission, who will set company specific charges that can range from 37.3 to 67.9% in case of failure in an agreement between the parts.

An equable tariff of 11.8% will be put into action starting from June 6 through August 5. This tariff applies to all companies concerned. The guidelines introduced in March making it necessary to record imports will be halted because of the anti-dumping duty.

Announced on Wednesday in the Official Journal of The European Union, granted by the EU Regulation 513/2013, the initial import duties for China’s crystalline solar trades are established in conformity with “net free-at-Union-frontier price, before duty.” Thus, these imports are “subject to the provision of a security equivalent to the amount of the provisional duty” before their release into the EU.

Lower duty rates will be granted to those companies that have stood up for EU investigations and have lower dumping allowance.
According to the EU regulation, companies that have supported EU investigations and that have lower dumping margins as well as lower injury margins for EU manufacturers will face lower duty rates.

As a consequence, Trina affronts an import duty rate of 51.5%; Jinzhou, a rate of 38.3%; Suntech 48.6%; Yingli 37.3%; 51.5%; LDK 55.9%; JA Solar 58.7%; and Delsolar an import duty rate of 67.9%.

Not only products made in China but also those exported by the country, such as crystalline photovoltaic modules, cells and wafers will face these taxes.

For 130 other companies that are part the EU investigation and are listed in the regulation annex, a preliminary duty of 47.6% will apply from Aug. 6. All other uncooperative companies with the EU investigation will be confronted with 69.7% import duties.

A concluding resolution will be made by the EU Council of Ministers on the level, likely to be sustained and be held valid in the subsequence of import charges on December 5 through the EU affiliated countries. In regard to the retroactive administration of anti-dumping control, no decision has been made yet.

Roxana Moraru

PV generation saved by the Japanese government. The companies are offer low-interests loans

The government in Japan is willing to help the Pv industry bloom. Regarding this matter, the government thought is for the best that the companies are offered low-interest loans for. The offer is available to those who install rooftop power systems.

The Japanese government is offering to help rooftop PV installers boost.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Japan will soon provide secure low interest loans to companies burrowing rooftop space for solar panels.

Citing the Nikkei newspaper, Bloomberg informs that the credit will be available via public financial institutions such as the Development Bank of Japan.

Companies will be allowed to sell electricity produced by the solar panels on the rooftops of people’s homes. These homeowners will also have something to gain in return for renting their rooftop space: they will receive between 10,000 yen ($97, €75) and 20,000 yen ($195, €150) a year.

Roxana Moraru

A new South African PV project has Google’s $ 10m investment

Richard Needham, the Google director, announced that his company invested ZAR103 million, meaning US$10 million in the Jasper Project. The search engine giant believes that the African country can become a renewable energy driver for the entire continent.

Google’s director for energy and sustainability believes that there are points to take into account when analyzing PV investments. It can have an economic sense or it can attract other investments that will “bolster the growth of the renewable energy industry and move the world closer to a clean energy future”, in the director’s terms.

The failure of the Google’s investments is almost never revealed but Bloomberg did not failed to announce that the giant is one of the equity investors in the african PV project together with SolarReserve, a U.S project developer, development partner Kensani Capital Investments; Intikon Energy; the state-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa; non-profit organization P.E.A.C.E.; and state pension fund Public Investment Group.

The search engine giant never fails to announce its investments in renewable energy so Reuters says that the company funded $94 million of photovoltaic projects in California and launched a $280 million financing package with SolarCity for residential solar installations among with acquiring a 49% stake in a German solar project in 2011.

Roxana Moraru

300 MW of solar projects are to be constructed by Chinese Merchants

The Chinese city of Xingtai and China Merchants New Energy Group signed a deal to develop 300 MW of solar projects in home market.

China Merchants New Energy Group (CMNE), a renewable energy project developer is going to build this year a third of the initial project, meaning 100 MW of solar project will be located in China’s Hebei province south of Beijing, as the company spokesman announced during this week.

The representatives of the company also said they will not give information regarding the financial details of Xingtai enterprise. Despite this, the company allied with Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Investment Co. so that they could develop 300 MW of solar projects in the Xinjiang province in northwestern China by 2015 with a total investment of invest CNY 3 billion ($489 million, €378 million).

Moreover, in the past year CMNE invested CNY 10 billion in solar projects. The money came from China Development Bank. This was also a joint venture with with Chinese polysilicon giant GCL-Poly Energy Holdings with whom they would produce 973 MW of PV facilities.

Last year CMNE secured CNY 10 billion from the China Development Bank to finance solar projects and the group partnered with Chinese polysilicon giant GCL-Poly Energy Holdings to develop some 973 MW of PV facilities in the country.

Roxana Moraru