Welspun to start construction of 50 MW solar PV plant in Maharashtra, India
The deputy chief minister laid the foundation stones for the project, which is moving forward despite the overall slowness in the Indian market.
US solar duty violated trade rules, WTO finds
The World Trade Organization ruled on Monday that U.S. tariffs imposed on Chinese solar panels broke international trade rules.
Rent-a-roof policy on cards for Delhi, India
Officials in the Indian city are considering adopting the successful rent-a-roof solar scheme launched by current PM Narendra Modi in Gujarat in 2011.
China inverter growth tops 100% as domestic dominance grows
As China’s solar inverter market expanded to nearly $800 million in 2013, demand has been driven by domestic suppliers, according to IHS.
Evonik partners with GCL on silicon compound plants in China
The German chemical giant is looking to establish plants with capacities of more than 20,000 metric tons planned. For GCL-Poly, the collaboration will help diversify its silicon products and boost competitiveness.
N-type mono is coming, but when?
A drive for higher efficiency solar PV technologies is expected to spur increased production of n-type mono wafers. However, analysts remain cautious about the exact timing of market adoption.
Iowa Supreme Court rules in favor of solar
Paving the way for power purchase agreements between customers and private solar companies, the decision is expected to jumpstart solar installations across the state.
NREL Research, Crystal Solar win R&D 100 Award
The research facility and the California PV company were honored for their breakthrough in silicon solar cells. NREL has won a total of 57 “Oscars of Innovation” since 1982.
SunEdison
Photovoltaic (PV) Micro-grids will Bring Electricity to Six Remote Villages by the End of 2014
SunEdison, Inc. (NYSE:SUNE), a leading global solar technology manufacturer and provider of solar energy services, today announced a new project that will install 159 kilowatts (kW) of solar PV micro-grids with battery storage in six remote Indian villages, which will bring electricity to, and thereby improve health and education for, 4,875 off-grid people. Working with the Government of India’s Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and the Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam state agency, SunEdison will build, operate and then transfer the facilities to a public entity after five years, giving the freedom of renewable, reliable energy to those who need it the most.
"Solar is often the most practical solution in India’s remote areas and building micro-grids allows for scalability as the need grows," said Pashupathy Gopalan, president of SunEdison Asia Pacific, Middle East and South Africa. "The project isn’t just about economics, as part of our SunEdison Eradication of Darkness (SEED) initiative we take into account the long term social and environmental impact as well. We believe that a collaborative approach, where private enterprise works closely with the government sector, is a winning model for future solar development in the region."
SunEdison will begin construction of the micro-grids in September 2014 after the seasonal monsoon rains subside and commission them by December 2014. The project will be completed under the REC’s decentralized distributed generation scheme, which enables remote communities to generate the clean, reliable energy essential for their development through small, off-grid systems located in the community, rather than depend on expensive and time-intensive public infrastructure expansion.
China paving way for electric vehicles
In the past week, the government has set a 30% share for state-purchased cars and exempted new energy cars from sales tax.
