Caterpillar, SunPower team up on CAT-branded solar
Caterpillar-branded SunPower modules will be available in Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East – but not yet the United States.
POWERHOUSE to turn on in December
RGS Energy says it expects to deliver its first POWERHOUSE solar shingles in December. The company did not accept deposits for its $127 million in written reservations, but now that UL approval is in they’re soliciting those groups for cash deposits.
Head of the class: SunPower gets an ‘A’ on $440 million solar portfolio
The Kroll Bond Rating Agency delivered an Investment Grade preliminary rating on a SunPower residential lease portfolio of 317 MW. The P50 and P90 ratings after 20 years were projected near 90%, and 73-80%, respectively.
SunPower still swinging in Q3 results
The high efficiency PV maker is still chasing elusive profitability, but had some major successes this quarter and is optimistic about new technologies and opportunities.
First Solar’s big format brings big bookings
The PV maker’s quarterly results show not only the ramping of its Series 6 production at a third location, but also bookings that continuing to climb, with 11.3 GW of modules now under contract.
53 investments in the sun
The Department of Energy announced funding for 53 new through “advance early-stage” solar technologies. The projects in solar PV, CSP, finance and workforce training will receive up to $53 million in funding.
REC Silicon struggles with even lower demand, Chinese tariffs
Revenue for the polysilicon maker’s solar materials segment fell almost 70% on the previous quarter, and the company reports its Moses Lake, Washington facility is running at only 25% capacity.
You had me at “hand-washed wafers”
In August, REC started manufacturing its newest flagship solar module: the REC330NP in the N-Peak Series, offering 19.8% efficiency at 330 watts. Its 60-cell format is practically two modules in one, building on the company’s two decades of accumulated manufacturing competency.
BNEF: U.S. module prices seeing “aggressive” reductions
The analytics firm expects the price of mono-PERC modules to fall to $0.37 per watt by the end of the year, despite the 30% Section 201 tariffs.
Solar panel theoretical efficiency limit increases by 33%
Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have found what they describe as conclusive evidence that perovskites feature “efficient carrier multiplication,” effectively increasing the single layer efficiency limit from 33% to 44%.
