Green Options » SunPower

BP Solar Expects to Add 100 MW in U.S. in 2009

Dave Tyler — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:59:22 +0000

The head of BP Solar International says his firm will install 100 megawatts of utility-level solar power projects on U.S. soil in 2009.

Reyad Fezzani told Dow Jones in an interview published Monday that his company, a subsidiary of energy giant BP PLC, is seeing high demand, and strong financing interest from investors. BP expects to manufacture 320 MW of solar panels in 2009, roughly double the amount it made in 2008. That will be split about 60/40 between large commericial and utility installations and residential sales, Fezzani said. That equates to about 192 MW of large scale installations, with 100 MW of that in the U.S., he said.

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Cleantech Experts Say IPOs Will Be Back … Eventually

Jennifer Kho — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:41:13 +0000

Cleantech IPOs have ground to a halt, and industry insiders at the Clean-Tech Investor Summit this week said they expect the no-exit environment to continue.

Mohr Davidow Ventures partner Will Coleman, who moderated a cleantech-financing panel at the event, asked panelists to guess when the IPOs would come back. “The second quarter, which doesn’t mean the markets [will have] reopened,” said Gary Vollen, managing director of the Stanford Group Co. “I think the third quarter, probably,” guessed Jeff Lipton, managing director of Jeffries & Co. Inc.

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Gap Stores Unveil One Megawatt Solar Power System at Fresno Distribution Facility

Tom Schueneman — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:39:57 +0000

A ceremonial switch was thrown on Tuesday marking the start of a new one megawatt solar power installation at Gap Inc.’s west coast distribution facility in Fresno California.

On hand for the unveiling were MMA Renewable Ventures and SunPower, along with representative from the city of Fresno.

The system was designed by SunPower, headquartered in San Jose, California, and features SunPower Tracker, a tracking technology that tracks the sun’s movement through the day. With this tracking technology, the 4,500 panel system will capture 25% more solar energy over fixed-tilt panels while reducing land-use requirements.

The installation has the capacity to generate 1.9 million kilowatt hours annually, enough to power 350 homes. The system should offset 2.5 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions or the equivalent of taking 2,466 vehicles off the road over the life of the project.

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Suniva Develops Low-Cost, High Efficiency Solar Cells

Ariel Schwartz — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:55:45 +0000

Suniva, an Atlanta-based startup, has recently developed solar cells that can achieve 20 percent efficiency. Unlike other high-efficiency cells, Suniva is using low-cost processes that will make their solar cells cost-competitive with conventional sources of electricity.

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Florida Gives Green Light to Largest Solar Power Plant in U.S.

Andrew Williams — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:38:49 +0000

The Florida Public Service Commission has “unanimously and enthusiastically” approved a plan to build America’s largest commercial solar-power plant in the state. The committee also gave the green light to a further two facilities, due to go on-line in 2009.

Florida Power & Light have selected SunPower to construct the three solar-power plants in the center of the state. The largest, a 75-megawatt plant in Martin County on the East Coast, will be connected to a natural gas plant. Another 25-megawatt plant in DeSoto County will be the largest photovoltaic facility in the country, while a third, 10-megawatt photovoltaic facility is to be housed at the Kennedy Space Center.

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