A growing global smart grid market
Smart grids are set to grow as Pike Research’s report shows. Meanwhile Echelon Corporation has announced two micro grid deployments in India and South Africa that will integrate distributed generation to compensate disruptions in utility-supplied power.
US: Calico project sued
The U.S. Department of the Interior is being sued by Defenders of Wildlife, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Sierra Club with the claim that the proposed Calico project in California does not meet basic environmental protection requirements and threatens imperiled wildlife.
Germany: Revised photovoltaic draft
The revised draft for the changes in the solar subsidies calls for some serious changes. The cuts remain though.
Costs still the focus for PV Technologies Roadmap 2012
Cost reduction is still more important than achieving higher efficiency as a photovoltaic production technology driver, according to speakers at the sixth edition of the PV Fab Managers Forum held in Berlin, Germany this week.
Ecobuild 2012: UK PV industry ready for sustainable growth
International photovoltaic companies exhibiting at Ecobuild, which took place in London last week, see the U.K. market as important for being able to accommodate and reward companies with long-term strategies.
Q-Cells North America underscores utility partnerships
On the eve of delivering his company’s first 30 megawatt (MW) of photovoltaics to Pacific Gas & Electric under the utility’s 250 MW Utility Owned Generation program, Boris Schubert, the CEO of Q-Cells North America, tells pv magazine why he is betting on the continued rapid growth of photovoltaics on this continent, and how his company will seek out a lion’s share of the market.
China: A booming inverter market
IMS Research reports that the Chinese photovoltaic inverter market grew by over 400 percent in 2011 to achieve more than 2.5 gigawatts (GW) in shipments.
Japan: 10 GW of PV by 2014
While much of the solar industrys attention has been focused on legislative and trade moves in the U.S., floundering companies in Germany and the significant cuts to support programs there, Japan may provide the photovoltaic good news story that the industry is looking for.
Tanzania: Largest solar project takes off
Camco International Limited and Rex Investment Ltd (RIL) have won a tender worth US$4.7 million for a solar PV project in Kigoma Region, northwest Tanzania. The project is due to commence in May this year.
TÜV Rheinland opens photovoltaic test laboratory in Korea
TÜV Rheinland strengthens its position as market leader in the field of testing and certifying photovoltaic components with the opening of its seventh facility in Gyeongsan, South Korea.
