Xunlight to Provide Modules for Slovakian, Italian Solar Projects

Xunlight, a supplier of thin-film silicon solar modules, says it has sold 208 KW of its solar panels through European channel partners for two rooftop installations in Pezinok, Slovakia and Spilimbergo, Italy. Xunlight has supplied 360 of its XR36 291W PV modules for each of these 104 KW installations.

These modules were assembled in Xunlight's Kunshan, China facility using triple-junction thin-film solar cells manufactured in the U.S. at its 25 MW roll-to-roll solar cell production line located in Toledo, Ohio.

Asia Report: China Takes Sharp Turn in Push for Solar Energy | Renewable Energy News Article

Here are more of my thoughts on China's National Energy Administration's announcement last week that it was increasing the solar capacity target by 50%.

Asia Report: China Takes Sharp Turn in Push for Solar Energy | Renewable Energy News Article

China scales up Solar Power Capacity Plan by 50%

Last week when I was interviewed by Solarserver.com, I was asked about officially released energy planning numbers in China. I said I always take them with a grain of salt. Not only do I doubt the numbers but I am always expecting them to be changed. All governments like to move the goalposts but this is especially the case with China and energy.

The good news with China's renewable energy targets is they are often made more ambitious. China is revising up its solar power development target for 2015 by 50 percent from its previous plan, China National Radio (www.cnr.cn) reported on 15 Dec 11.

The government has set a target for installed solar power generating capacity to reach 15 GW by 2015 and wind power capacity to hit 100 GW. China National Radio cited an announcement from the National Energy Administration.

China had doubled its 2015 solar power goal to 10 GW after the Japanese nuclear power crisis. Installed solar power capacity at the end of 2010 was less than 1 GW in China. Annual solar power output will reach 20 bln kWh by 2015 and wind power output 190 bln kWh.

China scaling up its solar capacity target, along with the summer's announcement of a unified feed-in tariff, are strong indications that China is serious about developing its domestic market.

Solar Interviews | Understanding China as a PV market: an interview with Chris Brown of Asia Cleantech Gateway - SolarServer

I enjoyed talking to Christian Roselund from SolarServer. Here is the interview:

Solar Interviews | Understanding China as a PV market: an interview with Chris Brown of Asia Cleantech Gateway - SolarServer

Jinko Solar donates PV array to Tanzania schools

In my previous career, I wrote intelligence reports for the US government about China's creeping world presence. Even if I didn't mean for my reports about China's growing involvement in Africa or South America to be peppered with exclamation point, they were read that way. Look at what China is doing in Venezuela! China is building infrastructure projects in Nigeria! Especially if the projects were energy-related, no one in the US government saw anything good coming from China asserting itself globally.

So, I love seeing a story like JinkoSolar partnering with the charity organization, Power to the People, to supply solar panels to the Nyumba ya Mungu secondary school in Northern Tanzania. If for no other reason than to show the complexity of the motivations and consequences of China's growing Africa presence. Beijing is not a charity. They are in Africa for national self-interest. However, that doesn't mean it is all bad.

To make it even more interesting, the system will be installed in July 2012 by a team of volunteers form the US solar industry and JinkoSolar workers. US-China solar professionals cooperating on providing and installing solar panels to Tanzanian schools. Good example of not only how the clean tech industries from the two sides can work together but also for the benefit of a third party, namely African school children. This project should be the poster child for international solar cooperation.

JinkoSolar will donate modules with a combined capacity of 2.5kW for use in a rooftop array as part of the initiative to bring solar power to the developing world. In addition, JinkoSolar employees will help to educate the local population on the benefits of solar power in an effort to boost the take up of the technology in Tanzania.

JA Solar Completes Purchase of Langfang Wafer Maker

On 1 Dec 11, JA Solar said it has completed the purchase of a Chinese monocrystalline wafer supplier to increase capacity and cut costs. The company said today in a statement that it issued 30.9 million ordinary shares to buy Solar Silicon Valley Electronic Science and Technology Co. When JA Solar announced the deal in July, it said it would issue the 30.9 million shares at $5.825 each at the time of closing, about a 5 percent premium over the price of its American depositary receipts the day before the purchase was disclosed. That valued the Langfang, China-based wafer maker at $180 million.

Canadian Solar Providing PV Modules for Italian Solar Plant

This week Canadian Solar has announced it will provide 12,465 PV modules for a ground-mount solar power plant installed on a former mining site in Cavriglia, Italy.

The 10 MW plant, which has been operational since October 11, contains over 40,000 modules, including Canadian Solar's CS6P-P series. Canadian Solar partner Coop Cellini Impianti Tecnologici installed the solar farm in the area of a former mining depot in the Tuscan province.

LDK Solar Announces Plan to Issue RMB 3,000,000,000 Notes

LDK Solar announced that it plans to issue an aggregate principle amount of RMB 3,000,000,000 notes to institutional investors in China.

China Minsheng Banking Corp. (CMBC) will act as underwriter and the notes will be issued in four tranches. The first tranche, consisting of an aggregate principal amount of RMB500,000,000 (approximately USD 78,800,000), will be issued on 7 Dec 11 and will be due on 8 Dec 14. The second tranche, consisting of an aggregate principal amount of RMB 500,000,000, is currently scheduled to be issued in first quarter of 2012. The third tranche, consisting of an aggregate principal amount of RMB1,000,000,000, is currently scheduled to be issued in second quarter of 2012. The fourth tranche, consisting of an aggregate principal amount of RMB1,000,000,000, is currently scheduled to be issued in the third quarter of 2012.

China Doubles Power Sales Surcharge to Subsidize Renewable Energy

China will double a surcharge on power sales to 0.008 yuan/kWh to subsidize renewable power generation, the NDRC announced on 1 Dec 11. According to the government agency, the revenue from an existing surcharge, at 0.004 yuan/kWh, is not enough to cover the difference that power grid operators pay for electricity output from renewable power developers.

Though not as dramatic and significant as the NDRC's announcement of a national feed-in tariff on August, this doubling of the power sales surcharge is another indication China is serious about developing a domestic renewable energy sector.