Siemens Solar GmbH (Munich) and Shell Renewables Ltd (UK) announced that they have reached an agreement to form a joint venture of their solar energy businesses. Subject to relevant regulatory approvals and consultations, the joint venture, Siemens and Shell Solar GmbH, will begin operation in April 2001. The agreement follows negotiations that Siemens and Shell […]
Ed Bloom of E. J. Bloom Associates (San Rafael, CA) has published his annual statistical analysis of papers to be presented at the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC, Anaheim, CA) this year. This year, Bloom discovered that 66.4 percent of all the papers being presented are associated with universities, with only 33.5 percent being from […]
Spire Corp. (Bedford, MA) announced the expansion of Spire Solar Europe to support its increased activities in Germany and other European countries. Spire Solar Europe has added technical staff at its headquarters in Schopfheim, Germany to improve support to its European customers as they expand their production capacity for manufacturing solar electric modules. New orders […]
PowerLight (Berkley, CA) has received authorization from the Almeda County board of supervisors to install a 500kW solar electric installation at its Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, CA. The company claims that this will be the largest roof-mounted system in the US. The project will take a two-fold approach to reducing the jail's electric utility […]
ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. (ATS, Canada) announced the start of a pilot project that will provide solar electricity to rural homes in western China through the use of ATS's photovoltaic technology. The pilot project, being undertaken with government and private industry partners, expands on an on-going project on photovoltaic renewable energy that was started […]
Darnell.Com Inc. (Corona, CA) announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Shenzhen IC-Net Co., a leading Chinese e-commerce company specializing in integrated circuits, semiconductors and related electronic products under the auspices of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (CECC) and the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII). The terms of the strategic partnership […]
Solardyne Corp. (Portland, OR) recently announced the new Solar Power Pack, a portable solar power generation system. Solardyne claims that the Solar Power Pack, which weighs 22 pounds, fits in a backpack and provides users with the tools they need to provide 120Wh of power each day. The unit can be used to power electronics […]
BP Solarex (Baltimore, MD) announced today that it will now be known as BP Solar (Linthicum, MD). This move comes in conjunction with BP Amoco's decision to form a single, global brand, under the new corporate brand name – BP. BP stated it will combine the former British Petroleum, Amoco, ARCO, and Burmah Castrol to […]
AstroPower Inc. (Newark, DE) recently announced its second quarter financial results. For the quarter ended June 30, 2000, total revenues were a record $11,911,000, an increase of 49.1 percent from the 1999 second quarter. Product revenues for the three months ended June 30, 2000 were a record $11,038,000, an increase of 52.2 percent from the […]
Solar Energy Systems Ltd. (SES, Australia) has closed its $5 million IPO and was oversubscribed. SES started trading on the Australian Stock Exchange on January 12, 2001. The company, which manufactures and installs pumping technologies and remote area power systems that use solar photovoltaic panels, had an initial stock offering at $0.25 Australian dollars per […]
MVV Energie AG (Germany) has taken a 33-percent stake in Energy Photovoltaics Inc. (EPV, Princeton, NJ) in a move to secure access to EPV's solar-energy technology. In a press report, MVV spokesman Heinz Egerman confirmed that his company had secured exclusive rights to produce and market EPV's thin-film photovoltaic modules in Germany. "There is an […]
International Power Sources (Holliston, MA) has released the new IH Series, a line of miniature board-mount dc/dc converters. These converters supply 2W in seven-pin SIP and 14-pin DIP packages. Input-to-output isolation is 1,000Vdc, with 3,000Vdc isolation available as an option. The IH Series includes 12 models with dual-output voltages of ±5Vdc, ±9Vdc, ±12Vdc and ±15Vdc […]
EMCORE Corp. (Somerset, NJ) announced the receipt of an additional $12.0 million order from Space Systems/Loral (SS/L, Palo Alto, CA) for high-efficiency, triple-junction solar cells. The solar cells will be used by SS/L to provide power in space for advanced communications satellites. EMCORE claims that their gallium arsenide triple-junction solar cells provide more power than […]
AstroPower Inc. (Newark, DE) has signed a technical cooperation agreement with Elkem (Norway) to develop a low-cost process for the production of silicon for use in photovoltaic cells. The agreement includes the future establishment of a jointly-owned manufacturing venture to supply low-cost silicon feedstock to the global solar power industry. That venture would be based […]
Siemens Solar (Munich, Germany) and Shell International Renewables Ltd. have announced their entrance into negotiations on closer cooperation in solar energy. The companies believe that this move will result in mutual benefits, further improving their position in the photovoltaics industry. For over a decade, Shell and Siemens Solar have been linked through two joint ventures […]