Americas

United Solar has finished work on a solar power project for the rooftop of the Moon Palace Hotel in Cancun, Mexico. The development was led by Enel Green Power, with support coming from the Mexican Environment Ministry, SEMARNAT, and the Italian Ministry of the Environment, and will generate 220MWh of electricity per year.

A single-junction organic photovoltaic solar cell with a surface area of 1 square centimetre has been demonstrated by Konarka Technologies to have a 8.3% efficiency.

Benjamin Moore and Constellation Energy are on the verge of completing a new solar power system that is expected to generate 68% of the electricity required to power Benjamin Moore's 80,000 square foot research and development facility in Flanders, New Jersey. The 1.7MW plant, which comprises of 8,600 crystalline PV solar panels and can generate 2,230,000kW hours of electricity per annum, is expected to be operational by the end of the year and will reduce the company's greenhouse gas emissions by 1,600 metric tonnes.

Boeing's Spectrolab subsidiary said it has begun volume production of its newest terrestrial triple-junction III-V-based solar cell, the C3MJ+. The device has an average conversion efficiency of 39.2%, which the company claims makes it the most-efficient cell on the market.

Southern California Edison has signed 20 contracts with six different independent power producer firms for nearly 240MW (AC) of solar photovoltaic systems to be deployed close to major transmission lines in various parts of the utility’s service areas in Southern California.

SunPower has revealed that it’s new headquarters will remain based in San Jose, CA. The company is to relocate to an existing three-building site on Rio Robles next year in order to accommodate long-term growth plans. By renovating the buildings, with a rooftop solar system and solar carport alongside other renewable features, SunPower aims to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has issued a proposed decision to launch a new renewable incentive program with the aim of driving the uptake of mid-sized renewable energy development. This next-generation feed-in tariff program will require investor-owned California utilities to purchase electricity from renewable energy systems between one and 20MW in size.

In a significant change of direction, Applied Materials has revealed that it will stop selling its turnkey a-Si thin-film technology under the SunFab name to potential new customers, shifting emphasis away from thin-film altogether and focusing on crystalline silicon (c-Si) and LED manufacturing equipment and technology.