Installations

Photovoltaic project developers Gehrlicher Solar and Martifer Solar have both signaled their continued expansion into Latin America today, with increased activity in Mexico. Gehrlicher has announced that it is opening an office in Mexico City, to develop projects in Mexico, and Martifer has announced at 30 MW project in the country also.

In its efforts to boost solar power in the country, the Japanese government is set to offer low-interest loans to companies that install rooftop solar power systems.

Thirteen requests for regulatory authorization to develop and operate photovoltaic plants worth a total of 392.4 MW have been received last week, according to Brazil’s national electricity regulator.

Premium payments in the entire renewable energy sector in Spain were 19% higher than envisaged in the 2012 outlook, while the total compensation in the photovoltaic sector in 2012 was close to the original forecast.

Boston based analysts Lux Research has announced that the solar sector is on the recovery path, set to reach a worth of US$155 billion in 2018. The industry is expected to ramp up rapidly to 61.7 GW market size in 2018 after modest growth to 35 GW in 2013. This is according to the “most-likely scenario” put forth by the analysts. China is set to leapfrog to become the largest market.

In a legal win for Canadian Solar Inc., a Chinese court has dismissed a request by LDK Solar to enforce an arbitration award decision by a state trade arbitration commission amounting to CNY 248.9 million ($40.1 million, €31.5 million) in connection with a contract dispute between the two companies.

Power generation solutions provider Siemens has released a study analyzing electrical power producing systems, especially renewable power plants, in Europe, and has identified the potential for optimization. Project siting has been cited as the key factor to reap savings; savings to the tune of €45 billion.

17 MW Yuma project the pick of nine new and expanded solar installations as U.S. reaches a cumulative 5.14 GW of generation capacity.

Swiss power and automation technologies giant ABB announced on April 22 the acquisition of inverter manufacturer U.S. Power-One. But shareholders of the American company are claiming that the US$1 billion sale price is too low. On Tuesday they filed a class action against ABB.

Henning Wicht, principal PV analyst at IHS Solar, talks to pv magazine about the possible effects average AD duties of 47% on Chinese PV imports will have on prices, investors’ business models, Chinese manufacturers, EPC players; and trade relations in Europe, China and beyond.