 |
|||
|
Schadenfreude in the Golden State Despite some news accounts to the contrary, the energy crisis in California is far from over. And the pain it is causing consumers is balm for sales of solar, making the state an increasingly hot PV property for an industry that's always looking for a good market and a shortcut to the money. United Solar gets $84 million infusion for new joint venture In a move to bring down production costs and gear up for economies of scale, Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) has bought out Canon Inc.’s interest in their ten-year-old joint venture, United Solar Systems Corporation, a manufacturer of thin-film amorphous PV.
Bill for a 15 percent PV tax
break before Congress A historic solar energy bill, first introduced in the US Congress as part of last year’s budget, refuses to go away and will confront American lawmakers again in the budget request for FY2001. Trace completes merger with Xantrex The US manufacturer Trace Holdings, LCC, the maker of Trace inverters, has announced a merger with the Canadian firm, Xantrex Technology Inc., creating what Mossadiq S. Umedaly, Xantrex’s chairman and CEO, claims will be the world’s leading supplier of advanced power electronics.
The State of New York makes
$1.3 million available for New York State’s Energy Smart program is putting up $1.3 million USD for projects demonstrating high-value off-grid and grid-supported photovoltaic and wind applications that can demonstrate advantages of solar over traditional energy sources. If passed, the US PV budget request for FY 2001 would mean a significant increase relative to FY 2000. For various reasons, however, the US PV industry is not happy with the proposal. A detailed breakdown of costs. New IEEE standard facilitates grid-connection in US For the first time, a working group, led by John Stevens from Sandia National Laboratories, has developed a US standard allowing interconnections of non-utility-owned distributed generation equipment. Global Solar gunning for a 15 percent share of the market When Global Solar was trying to interest the US Marines in its CIS technology for mobile purposes, the Arizona-based company demonstrated the Portable Power Pack product by letting soldiers shoot holes through it. The loss of efficiency was negligible, and the deal was done. US DOE initiates new solicitation On February 29, the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) published a draft application for funds under its »Energy Efficiency Science Initiative.«
Arizona utility plans to complete 1-MW PV systems by the end of this year In mid-March, the US electric utility Arizona Public Service Company (APS) completed a 70-kW PV concentrating system at their solar test field, called STAR, in Tempe, Arizona.
|
|||
|
|||
