[amor de cosmos]

Solar PV Module Revenues To Turn Upward, But Not Until 2015
April 29, 2013

Solar photovoltaic (PV) market analysts at NPD SolarBuzz see industry-wide PV module revenues increasing, but not until 2015.

Industry-average selling prices (ASPs) for PV modules dropped precipitously — some 50% year over year in 2012 — while end-user demand increased just 5%, NPD Solarbuzz notes in its latest 2013 Marketbuzz, Solarbuzz Quarterly, and annual downstream PV market reports.

PV cell and module manufacturers significantly expanded capacity in 2010 and 2011, with potential supply reaching 45 gigawatts (GW) as compared to 29 GW of actual demand. The huge supply overhang and precipitous price drops have since inflicted a lot of financial pain. Ongoing market and broader economic weakness and uncertainty in the US, Europe, and Asia is adding to the pressure, as governments pull back and reduce financial support, subsidies, and other incentives.

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/29/...ot-until-2015/

Schneider Electric Collaborates With Cricketing Giant Sachin Tendulkar To Distribute Solar Lights In Rural India
April 29, 2013

On his 40th birthday, living legend of the cricketing world and arguably the best ambassador of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar joined hands with Schneider Electric to bring light to the lives of thousands of Indians struggling to access electricity in rural areas.

Schneider Electric plans to distribute LED-based lighting systems across 25,000 villages in India. The company will be joined by Sachin Tendulkar to promote the ‘Spreading Happiness’ non-profit organisation that will work at the village-level to distribute the lighting systems and educate people on its use.

Schneider Electric has developed an innovative lighting system called the In-Diya Lighting System, to cater to the needs of various types of consumers in rural India. Some remote areas of India have access to intermittent electricity while several rural areas have none at all: the In-Diya Lighting System would serve well consumers in both.

The system can be plugged directly into the AC supply, if available, and used directly. Conversely, it can be connected to a solar panel to charge a battery or be used directly. The company claims that the system can light up a 12 feet by 12 feet room for normal activities and would last for 50,000 hours over its lifecycle.

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/29/...n-rural-india/

SunPower officially starts construction of joint 579MW Antelope Valley PV power plants
By Mark Osborne - 26 April 2013, 20:48

SunPower has begun constructing what will be the largest combined PV power plants, recently acquired by a subsidiary within investor Warren Buffett's empire.

The two co-located Antelope Valley Solar Projects (AVSP) have a combined 579MW capacity, making them the world’s largest PV projects when completed over the next two years.

The EPC contract is said to be worth between US$2 billion and US$2.5 billion to SunPower under a recently agreed purchase by MidAmerican Solar.

According to SunPower, the projects will provide up to 650 jobs during construction and generate more than US$500 million in regional economic impact. The projects are expected to provide enough energy to power approximately 400,000 average California homes when fully operational.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/sunpower...pe_valley_pv_p

Sunrun CEO accuses Arizona utility of trying to crush net energy metering
By Felicity Carus - 26 April 2013, 18:26

A leading solar installer accused Arizona's largest utility of trying to "crush" net energy metering earlier this week.

Arizona Public Service Company is currently conducting a series of technical workshops on the cost of solar in the state, the second largest market for distributed generation.

Arizona currently requires utilities to procure 15% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. The mandate also includes a 30% carve-out for distributed grid. APS has 24,000 customers who have installed solar systems on their homes or businesses, 16,000 of them net metered.

Ed Fenster, co-CEO of Sunrun, said: "Public opinion is clearly in favour of solar, including in Arizona, however, the utilities have taken the approach which is to say they are for solar [but] with their regulatory folks doing everything they can to crush net metering.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/sunrun_c...nergy_metering