Power and Energy Solutions, the industry-leading publication from P and G Media, launches its first North America title, which is out today. Packed with essential wind analysis, comment and features, this latest issue focuses on the how transport is fueling the new wind boom in North America. {pagebreak} The magazine features an exclusive interview with… Read more »
Thomas Richterich: “New corporate status to reflect international footprint” Hamburg, April 6, 2009. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board of Nordex AG have decided to ask the shareholders at the annual general meeting on May 26, 2009 to approve a resolution conver- ting Nordex Aktiengesellschaft into a European Company (Societas Europaea, SE) {pagebreak} with… Read more »
In launching its submission to the Treasury this week ahead of the Budget on April 22, the BWEA – the UK’s leading renewable energy trade body – called for targeted Government intervention to ensure that Britain can meet its ambitious renewable energy targets. BWEA Chief Executive, Maria McCaffery, said “Large scale wind deployment is vital… Read more »
Subsidiaries in Japan for home solar panels are having a hard time attracting applicants. This may suggest that the government could soon step in to promote the solar power industry, according to Reuters. A new stimulus plan is expected to spend more money on solar projects. This is, in fact, the fourth such package in… Read more »
Q-Cells and LDK Solar have announced the official formation of a Joint Venture to promote and supply PV systems for large-scale solar power plants in both Europe and China, confirming recent rumours regarding a pending alliance. The new business partners said that a 40MW project located in Europe had already been secured, which will see… Read more »
SolarWorld AG could stand to be one of the biggest winners as a result of President Obama’s pledge to heavily invest in the renewable energy sector in the United States. The company is one of the few German companies to remain relatively unscathed by the financial crisis so far and analysts believe the United States… Read more »
Singapore’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions are similar to that of Europe, and it imports all its fuel, which on paper makes solar power very attractive. “There’s a lot of roof top space in almost any housing — why not have an array of solar water heaters?” said Yatin Premchand of the Singapore Environment Council…. Read more »
US LAW FIRM REPRESENTS INDIA CLEANTECH COMPANY IN LANDMARK SOLAR ENERGY DEALBrown Rudnick, an international law firm, has represented the ACME Group, a provider of energy, environmental, and telecommunications infrastructure solutions in India, in the company’s solar energy deal with eSolar. {pagebreak} Under the agreement, eSolar signed an exclusive license agreement with ACME to build… Read more »
ENN Solar Energy Co., Ltd. has just announced that it has produced China’s first 5.7m2 high-efficiency, tandem junction thin film photovoltaic panels using a SunFabTM Thin Film Line, rated at 60 megawatts per year, supplied by Applied Materials, Inc. {pagebreak} Working together at ENN’s leading-edge facility in Langfang, China, ENN and Applied achieved this milestone… Read more »
NRG Systems, leading U.S. manufacturer of wind measurement equipment, and Leosphere, leading specialist in lidar (laser radar) for atmospheric observations, have announced the formation of a global partnership to expand the use of remote sensing with lidar in the wind energy industry. The first product of the partnership is the WINDCUBE lidar wind measurement system,… Read more »
Modern gears are performing heavier work and carrying greater loads than ever before. Gear manufacturers are redesigning, modernising and using finer steels to produce precision gears that will give better performance. This has never been truer than in the wind industry and the gears designed specifically for use in wind turbines. Furthermore, there is an… Read more »
Sicme Motori and EEI are planning to present their revolutionary Twind solution at Windpower 2009. The application is the result of extensive engineering and marketing cooperation between two of the leaders in the global energy market and is designed specifically to provide a single-source electrical conversion solution for energy production from renewable sources. {pagebreak} At… Read more »
Japanese consumer electronics giants Toshiba and Sharp are in talks on a possible tie-up in the solar power generation field, the companies admitted last week. “It is true that we are holding talks on the solar cell business with other companies, including Toshiba,” Sharp Corp. spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said, declining to give further details. {pagebreak}… Read more »
A bi-partisan gathering of legislators, business people, and environmental advocates were at the Texas State Capitol in Austin last week as State Senator Eddie Lucio, Jr. and State Representative Pete Gallego introduced legislation to allow the further development of the emerging renewable technologies market. {pagebreak} During this session, Texas legislators are looking at close to… Read more »
The European Commission last week sent a reasoned opinion to Italy for failure to recognise certain guarantees of origin from other EU Member States. Under an EU Directive on electricity production from renewable energy sources, {pagebreak} Member States are required to establish a system of guarantees of origin and, as a general rule, to recognise… Read more »
The wind energy sector is attracting new sources of capital that compensate for banks’ general reluctance to provide debt finance for projects, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) announced last week. A growing number of power companies with strong balance sheets are investing in wind energy and there is increasing interest from institutional investors, despite… Read more »
In the city of Moers near Duisburg, 120 project partners, customers and suppliers have inaugurated Germany ‘s largest photovoltaic plant using thin-film technology on a pitched roof. 24 March 2009. The system provider Solaxis GmbH and Solardach GmbH have jointly developed a solar power plant on the roof of Riedel Recycling. {pagebreak} The solar modules… Read more »
Tactile pressure indicating film provides a simple cost-effective method for process control and monitoring of solar module production equipment Sensor Products Inc. introduces Pressurex®, a surface pressure indicating film that reveals pressure magnitude and distribution between any two contacting or mating surfaces. In the Photovoltaics industry, {pagebreak} the need to reduce peripheral cracks on solar… Read more »
Delegates left the European Wind Energy Conference 2009 (EWEC) last week with the reminder that wind energy is Europe’s number one in terms of new power capacity ringing in their ears. {pagebreak} “In 2008, we installed 8,454 MW of wind capacity, making up 36% of power installations”, stressed Arthouros Zervos, President of the European Wind… Read more »
Tentec Appoints McCann Equipment in Canada as Agents for Aero Wind Turbine Tools Continuing the expansion of its global network for the sales, distribution and service of the recently launched Aero range of hydraulic bolt tensioners for wind turbines, {pagebreak} Tentec is pleased to announce the appointment of McCann Equipment as its agent in Canada…. Read more »
Solar energy capacity in the United States grew by 17 percent in 2008, according to a preliminary report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association. But Rhone Resch, the president of the solar group, warned that the financial crisis has hit the industry hard, since financing for projects has largely dried up. {pagebreak} “We’re not… Read more »
High-speed, reliable, and affordable metrology solutions for every class of thin-film photovoltaic material used in today’s industry San Diego CA, March 2009. Filmetrics announces the launch of its thin-film photovoltaic (TFPV) dedicated measurement systems. {pagebreak} With the release of the F10-PV and the F37-PV Filmetrics now offers commercially available tabletop and in-line metrology solutions for… Read more »
If domestic solar panels become as common on the plains and rooftops of the United States as they are abroad, it may be because the financing technique that gave Europe an early lead in renewable energy is starting to cross the Atlantic. {pagebreak} The idea is to pay homeowners and businesses cash for producing green… Read more »
Italy plans to boost capacity of its photovoltaic installations turning sunlight into power- to 16,000 megawatts (MW) in 2020 from about 280 MW now, on the back of generous government incentives. {pagebreak} And industry body GIFI, together with Italy’s state power management agency GSE, have recently released the following key facts about the sector: *… Read more »
Last week, two major but very different players in the world of aerodynamics – the American airplane builder Boeing and the giant Danish wind-turbine maker Vestas – announced they would seek ways to work together on various projects. {pagebreak} And while it is still early days, the recently announced partnership is an interesting sign of… Read more »
A world-renowned manufacturer within the PV industry, Bruker-Spaleck has built its business upon innovation and diversification. Heinrich Schillings talks to PES about the past, present and future of the company. {pagebreak} PES: Bruker-Spaleck is well-known for its manufacture of flat wires which are used in a variety of applications. Can you tell us something of… Read more »
Going back to basics for massive gains in speed and yield A company built on simple solutions to complex issues, Eurotron offers a complete solution for the photovoltaic module manufacturing process for backside contact cells. They’ve developed a flexible production line which can adapt to your customised production needs, and in doing so, have pioneered… Read more »
24th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference: “The most inspiring platform for the global PV solar sector The health of Europe’s PV industry is reflected in the high demand for space at this year’s Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, being held in Hamburg in September, with the total exhibition area booked already exceeding the area of… Read more »
‘They seem to do it well in Germany’ is a familiar phrase that enters into conversation whenever there is a complaint to be made about another country’s industrial shortcomings. Whether it is the automotive sector, the transport system, the manufacture of electrical goods or simply the high standard of living, the Germans always seem to… Read more »
It’s a careful public relations trick. Look at the brochures of electricity companies, check out their websites and watch their adverts and you’ll see green pictures full of wind farms and sunshine, waves pounding on a beach or kites blowing in the air. These are the images that now surround electricity generation. {pagebreak} But however… Read more »
Economic news makes for grim reading these days, and we have entered a new era of corporate austerity. Cost-cutting has become a major focus and belts are being tightened across the board. {pagebreak} For those charged with slashing expenditure it is tempting to simply rush around rationing the stationery, instituting redundancies and slashing the IT… Read more »
12 hours before this magazine went to press, the European Environment Agency published its annual Energy and Environment Report. This wide-ranging snapshot of the industry today is essential reading for executives throughout the renewables industry. PES is proud to present an exclusive extract… {pagebreak} 1 What is the impact of energy production and use on… Read more »
New trade group aims to meet needs of PV manufacturers and suppliers The International Photovoltaic Equipment Association (IPVEA), founded just last year, is an independent organisation of 70 manufacturers and suppliers of photovoltaic (PV) fabrication equipment and related raw materials used in PV ingot, wafer, cell (crystalline and thin-film), and panel manufacturing. {pagebreak} The association’s… Read more »
Growth in energy demand combined with the increasing deterioration of existing energy networks, means energy generation and management are now vitally important. The International Energy Agency’s ‘alternative scenario’ commissioned by the G8 reported that most OECD countries are at a critical point in their energy investment cycles, with the need for replacement enabling them to… Read more »
Automating Solar Manufacturing: Taking Advantage of Lessons Learned Solar Energy and Grid Parity There’s no doubt that the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry is hot. According to Solarbuzz, LLC an international solar energy research and consulting company, world solar photovoltaic (PV) market installations reached a record high of 2,826 megawatts (MW) in 2007, representing a growth… Read more »
WIND AND SOLAR IN THE CARBON MARKET – CURRENT STATUS AND OUTLOOK During the first two weeks of December 2008, Poznan, Poland’s fifth largest city, hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the 14th session of the Conference of Parties (COP 14) to the United Nation Framework Convention on Client Change (UNFCCC). {pagebreak} The negotiations… Read more »