The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $195,000 contract to develop a roadmap for completing development of solar concentrator arrays. The arrays use flexible, ultra-light lenses to focus sunlight onto high-efficiency solar cells. The concepts to be explored under the NSF contract will increase efficiency beyond the prototype arrays that recorded 27 percent efficiency. […]
AAER World (Montreal, Canada) announced that it will establish Canada's first wind turbine manufacturing plant next autumn, and that it has already signed a letter of intent to sell 27 turbines to China as well. AAER will sell the 1.5MW turbines to Fujian YongFeng Science and Technology for $49.0 million. An option to purchase 66 […]
SatCon Technology Corp. (Cambridge, MA) announced that its power inverters for on-site power generation have been determined to be in compliance with the Standard for Inverters, Converters and Controllers for Use in Independent Power Systems, UL 1741, by Underwriters Laboratories Inc. SatCon's power inverters were tested for compliance with standards for alternative energy, and distributed […]
Shell Solar (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) announced that it will lay off 170 workers in the Netherlands and Germany as the company restructures its position in the global solar photovoltaic market. Global production capacity of photovoltaics increased from 400MW in 2001 to 760MW in 2002, but the downturn in demand and "substantial overcapacity" has affected all […]
The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM, Washington, DC) has issued new guidelines to respond to growing interest in the commercial development of wind farms on public lands. The BLM has recently received 30 new applications for wind projects in Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, California, Wyoming and Washington. The new policy provides guidance on the […]
Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd. (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) announced the appointment of Paul Wormser as a Director of the company. Wormser is COO of Konarka Technologies (Lowell, MA), which is developing a breakthrough, thin-film, solar technology. Prior to joining Konarka, Wormser served as CEO of Advanced Energy, and was also Director of Technology with Solar Design […]
Sorensen (San Diego, CA) announced its participation with Northwestern University's Solar Car Team in the American Solar Challenge. Sorensen's DLM 3kW programmable...
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced that it was investigating whether former Enron Corp. (Houston, TX) executive Andrew Fastow improperly created special partnerships to hide the company's stake in three wind power farms. FERC said it would hold hearings to determine if the three small power producers should be stripped of their certification as […]
FPL Energy LLC (Juno Beach, FL), a subsidiary of FPL Group Inc., announced that it is in the process of adding approximately 600MW to its existing wind energy portfolio through the addition of new facilities in New Mexico, California, Iowa, West Virginia and the Dakotas. The new energy centers include the 204MW New Mexico Wind […]
PNM, a wholly owned subsidiary of PNM Resources, has entered into an agreement with FPL Energy LLC (Juno Beach, FL), a subsidiary of FPL Group Inc., to develop a 204MW wind generation facility in New Mexico. FPL Energy will build, own and operate the New Mexico Wind Energy Center, consisting of 136 wind-powered turbines on […]
PowerLight Corp. (Berkeley, CA) joined with Clean Air Communities, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Con Edison, and the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center (GMDC) to unveil New York City's largest commercial rooftop solar power system. The $900,000 project was jointly funded through a public-private partnership by Clean Air Communities, NYSERDA […]
Evergreen Solar Inc. (Marlboro, MA) announced that it has been awarded a cost-shared letter subcontract by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL, Golden, CO) to complete a research and development program under the photovoltaic manufacturing technology (PVMaT) program. The three-year, cost-shared agreement, which renews annually, will help continue the development of Evergreen's String Ribbon manufacturing […]
Iberdrola SA (Spain) has bought up to 1,100MW of wind-powered energy from alternative energy company Grupo Auxiliar Metalurgico SA (Gamesa, Spain) for around EUR1.0 billion. Iberdrola, through its renewable energy subsidiary, IbeRenova, signed an agreement with Gamesa to cooperate in the exploration and utilization of renewable forms of energy through 2006. The deal will see […]
Microchip Technology Inc. (Chandler, AZ) introduced its MCP614X family of operational amplifiers that feature a gain bandwidth product of 100kHz, an ultra-low typical quiescent current of 600nA and a maximum quiescent current of 1µA. With a typical power consumption of less than 1µW at quiescent state with a 1.4V supply, the op amps improve performance […]
Smart Fuel Cell GmbH (SFC, Munich, Germany) announced the launch of its SFC 25.2500 R portable, stand-alone, power supply powered by an...