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Date: 2013-04-05
Oakland, California-based BrightSource Energy has suspended its proposed Hidden HIlls Solar Electric Generating System project and cancelled its PPA with Pacific Gas & Electric. Scheduling issues and transmission obstacles were cited as reasons for the project suspension, which stops short of a full cancellation. The Hidden Hills project would have occupied about 3,280 acres in the Pahrump Valley just west of the Nevada State line. Its two power towers would have generated a combined maximum of 500 MW.
The suspension leaves BrightSource with only one project under consideration by the Calif. Energy Commission (CEC): the 500-MW Palen Solar Electric Generating Station, which had been approved by the CEC for a radically different design by previous owner Solar Millennium. BrightSource's soon to be completed Ivanpah project is the only solar power generating project on which the company has broken ground in California, although the firm has built a smaller facility near Coalinga. (Source: Brightsource, California Energy Commission, KCET, 3 April, 2013) Contact: BrightSource Energy, (510) 550-8161, www.brightsourceenergy.com; Pacific Gas & Electric, www.pge.com
Tags Concentrated Solar news, Solar news,
Date: 2012-07-04
SolarWorld USA, itself a division of a Germany-based corporation, was initially the only publicly named company among seven that joined together last October to charge that Chinese crystalline silicon solar cell and panel companies were dumping their products in the United States below cost and benefitting from illegal government subsidies. MX Solar USA came out of the closet as part of the complaint in March this year. The company had officially opened its New Jersey plant for production on December 7, 2010, after an investment of $14.5 million. It expected to produce 65 megawatts of solar panels a year and employ 120 people by March 2011 and 190 by the end of 2011 [PDF]. The Bergen Record report, however, said that employment peaked at 120 last year, and 100 employees had since been laid off, many in March this year. Documents [PDF] from the New Jersey Economic Development Agency suggest the company received financing under the state’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Fund totaling $3.3 million. It appears that $300,000 was a grant. The additional $3 million apparently came as a 10-year, 2 percent interest loan under which repayments were to start at the beginning of the company’s fourth year. Whether the Italy-based parent would be responsible for that loan is not known. In hindsight, the timing on the opening of the Somerset, N.J., plant could not have been worse, as 2011 saw Chinese solar products surge into the United States. Meanwhile, solar installations continued to grow in the United States and around the world, but with subsidies beginning to moderate in economically strapped Europe, they couldn’t keep pace with exploding manufacturing capacity. The result has been plummeting prices and carnage in the industry, and not just in the United States. In April, Q-Cells became the fourth solar company in PV-powerhouse Germany to file for bankruptcy this year, joining Solar Millennium, Solon and Solarhybrid. It might be of little consolation to MX Solar USA, but the trade action against the Chinese solar industry did score a victory. In May, two months after slapping puny preliminary countervailing duties on imports from China, the U.S. Commerce Department announced hefty anti-dumping duties of around 31 percent on China’s largest solar companies, including Trina andSuntech, and up to nearly 250 percent on other manufacturers. (Source: SolarWorld, Earth Techling, 25 June, 2012)
Date: 2012-04-23
Q-Cells SE, the bankrupt German solar-cell maker has resumed production in an effort to find a buyer for the company and to save as many parts and jobs of Q-Cells as possible.
Many German solar manufactures have struggled under the weight of cheap foreign competition and reduced government aid , all of which has flooded the solar panel market. Q-Cells, once the biggest solar-cell maker, Solon SE (SOO1), Solar Millennium AG (S2M) and Solarhybrid AG (SHL) have all filed for insolvency since December, 2012. (Source: Q-Cells, Bloomberg, 23 April, 2012)
Tags Q-Cell news,
Date: 2012-04-13
Following on our March 23 coverage, BrightSource Energy, the California solar thermal power plant builder backed by Google, NRG Energy, Morgan Stanley and other heavy-hitters, citing "adverse market conditions" abruptly pulled its IPO on the eve of its planned debut Thursday. The company had sought to raise $182.5 million in an offering that had a target range of $21 to $23 a share. BrightSource initially filed its S-1 on Earth Day last year and pulled the offering 11 days before Earth Day 2012.
BrightSource's IPO had been seen as a test of Big Solar's interest to investors but the solar market has been uneven as Germany and Spain ratcheted back subsidies while the future of renewable energy incentives in the U.S. has been caught up in presidential election-year politics. In addition, as solar panel prices have plummeted, Chinese photovoltaic module makers grabbed a large share of the U.S. market. With a 75% fall in solar panel prices over the past three years, utilities in California, the largest U.S. solar market, have favored photovoltaic projects over the solar thermal facilities built by companies like BrightSource.
Against that less than encouraging backdrop, BrightSource's solar thermal competitors Solar Millennium of Germany and U.S. startup Stirling Energy Systems filed for bankruptcy in recent months. BrightSource Energy, which is well capitalized and the recipient of a $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee, seemed a likely candidate to be one of the few solar thermal start-ups left standing.
(Source: Bright Source, April, 11, 2012) Contact: BrightSource Energy, Charles Ricker, SVP, Business Development, (510) 550-8161 ext 108, [email protected], www.brightsourceenergy.com
Tags BrightSource Energy news, Solar Thermal news,
Date: 2011-11-15
German solar energy developer Solar Millennium is working on a new financing and ownership structure of a Spanish concentrating solar power project, aiming at a timely completion of the concentrated solar thermal plant by the end of 2013.Negotiations are at an advanced stage.
Solar Millennium AG operates globally and specializes in solar-thermal power plants, particularly parabolic trough plants. The Company covers all important business sectors along the value chain for solar power plants: from project development and financing to technology, plant construction, and turnkey operations.
Solar Millennium realized Europe's first parabolic trough power plants in Spain as well as the first modern parabolic trough solar field in Egypt. Additional projects are planned around the world. The current regional focus is on Spain, the Middle East and North Africa. (Source: Solar Millennium, November, 14, 2011)Contact: Dr. Christoph Wolff, CEO, Solar Millennium, +49 (0)9131 9409-0, www.solarmillennium.com
Tags Solar Millennium news, Concentrating Solar Power news, Parabolic Trough news,
Date: 2011-05-20
Parabolic trough-based concentrating solar power (CSP) specialist Solar Millennium reports that it will be adding solar tower power plants and PV to its project arsenal to prevent the Company missing out on projects where the location or conditions are unsuitable for its core CSP technology.
To that end, the Company established an R&D team last year to work on solar tower systems,
especially in combination with parabolic troughs.
The company says it wants to use solar tower PV as a supplement to its parabolic trough technology, for the commercial use of uneven terrain or border areas of the project locations.
(Source: Solar Millennium, Recharge News, May, 19, 2011)
Contact: Dr. Christoph Wolff, CEO, Solar Millennium, +49 (0)9131 9409-0, www.solarmillennium.com
More Energy Overviews Solar Tower news, Solar Millennium news, Concentrating Solar Power news, Parabolic Trough news,
Date: 2010-11-29
Integrated solar solutions provider Solar Trust of America LLC's subsidiary, Solar Millennium, LLC, has received a draft term sheet for a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The funds will be used for the Blythe Solar Power Project (Blythe) in California under its 1705 program for Innovative Technologies.
The draft term sheet is an important financial milestone in the realization of what will be the world's largest solar facility and a significant catalyst to the development of a manufacturing supply chain for solar thermal technology in the U.S.
Blythe is fully permitted for up to four 250 megawatt (MW) plants delivering a total 1,000 MW of solar capacity to the grid; or enough electricity to annually power more than 300,000 single-family homes. The draft term sheet corresponds with the development of the first two of four power plants.
Solar Trust is seeking to finance the first two units at Blythe (combined capacity of 500 MW) in 2011 utilizing the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program. John Clapp, Solar Trust of America's Chief Financial Officer, said that receipt of the term sheet is an important milestone as the DOE and Solar Trust work towards a conditional commitment and eventual financial close for the financing of the first two units at Blythe.
According to DOE statistics, upon completion, the Blythe facility will increase the solar electricity production capacity of the U.S. by more than double. (Source: Newswire, November 23,2010)
Contact: Uwe T. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Solar Trust of America and Executive Chairman of project development subsidiary Solar Millennium, LLC., (216) 763-8050,www.solartrustofamerica.com
More Energy Overviews Solar Trust of America news,
Date: 2010-11-18
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on Monday approved the Amargosa Farm Road Solar Project, the third major solar project to gain approval to be built on U.S. public lands.
The two 250-megawatt plants will be built by Solar Millennium, a German manufacturer of parabolic-shaped concentrated solar panels. Each plant will include a thermal energy storage system so that it can continue to supply electricity during unfavorable conditions. A percentage of solar-generated electricity will power buildings in Las Vegas. When complete, the project should supply enough electricity to power 150,000 U.S. homes annually.
Including the Amargosa project, Solar Millennium now has the potential to build 1,500 megawatts worth of solar energy projects in the U.S.(Source: Cnet, November 17,2010)
Contact: Solar Millennium, 49 0 9131 9409-0, www.solarmillennium.de
More Energy Overviews Solar Millennium news,
Date: 2010-11-16
The California Energy Commission siting committee has recommended approval of Solar Millennium's Palen Solar Project with some suggested reconfigurations to eliminate possible environmental problems. The 500 MW project would be composed of a concentrating solar trough thermal electric generating facility with two adjacent and independent units of 250 MW each. The project would use parabolic trough technology.
The committee also recommended approval of the 150 MW Rice Solar Energy Project proposed by a subsidiary of SolarReaser LLC, to be located 15 miles northeast of Vidal Junction. This is a concentrating solar thermal power project with a central receiver tower, sun-tracking heliostat field and an integrated thermal storage system using molten salt as the heat transfer and storage medium.
The Commission is expected to decide on both these projects before the end of 2010. (Source: CEC, November 12, 2010)
Contact: Palen Solar Project, Alan Solomon, Project Manager, Siting, Transmission and Environmental Protection (STEP) Division, California Energy Commission, (916) 653-8236, [email protected], Details; Rice Solar Project, John Kessler, Project Manager
Siting, Transmission and Environmental Protection (STEP) Division, California Energy Commission, (916) 654-4679, [email protected], Details.
More Energy Overviews Solar Millennium news, California Energy Commission news,
Date: 2010-10-26
The Bureau of Land Management has approved the construction of the 1,000 MW Blythe Solar Project by offering Solar Millennium, a subsidiary of Solar Trust of America, a right-of-way grant to use public lands for 30 years if all rents and other conditions are met. This will be the largest solar project to be built on public lands to date.
The project will use parabolic trough technology and its output will be generated by four independent 250 MW units, with the estimated cost of the first two units being $3 billion. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Solar Millennium is eligible to secure $1.9 billion in conditional loan guarantees from the U.S. DOE for this project. (Source: BLM, October 25, 2010)
Contact: David Quick, Bureau of Land Management, (202) 912-7413, www.blm.gov; Solar Millennium, +49 (0) 9131 94 090, [email protected], www.solarmillennium.de
More Energy Overviews Solar Millennium news,
Date: 2010-09-20
The California Energy Commission has approved the construction of the 1,000 MW Blythe Solar Project proposed by Solar Millennium, a subsidiary of Solar Trust of America. The project will use parabolic trough technology and its output will be generated by four independent 250 MW units. This is one of the first commercial solar thermal projects permitted on federal lands. It still requires approval of the Bureau of Land Management. (Source: New York Times, September 17, 2010) Contact: Solar Millennium, +49 (0) 9131 94 090, [email protected], www.solarmillennium.de
More Energy Overviews Solar Millennium news, solar thermal news,