One of World's Largest Wind Farms Starts Up in Oregon

The Shepherds Flat wind farm, one of the largest in the world, is now operating in Oregon.
Credit: Energy Department

Caithness Energy announced on September 22 that its Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Oregon—one of the largest in the world—is now operational and generating up to 845 megawatts of electricity. The Energy Department supported the project with a $1.3 billion partial loan guarantee through the Recovery Act in 2010. The company said the project in the northeastern part of the state will generate enough electricity to power 235,000 U.S. homes.

Sponsored by Caithness and General Electric (GE) Energy Financial Services, the project consists of 338 GE 2.5xl turbines, which are being deployed for the first time in North America. The project's output is contracted through 20-year power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison. The project will eliminate nearly1,216,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, an amount equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from more than 212,000 passenger vehicles. See the Caithness press release and the October 13, 2010 edition of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy newsletter.

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World's Largest Solar Power Plant Produces Power with Canadian Solar Modules

 Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar companies, today announced that it has supplied 636,000 solar modules for the world's largest solar complex in southern Brandenburg, Germany. Canadian Solar provided 148 MW of the system's total 166 MW to its two partners, saferay and GP JOULE. A portion of the system's core output, approximately 78 MW, was implemented by saferay.  The system will be able to produce enough green energy for the usage needs of approximately 50,000 homes. The park was opened by Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck on September 24. The inauguration ceremony was held on the premises of the Senftenberg II/III solar power plant.  

In his speech, Prime Minister Platzeck thanked the companies involved and said: "Large solar plants, like the Senftenberg and Schipkau installations, play a key role in Germany's energy supply and help accelerate the aspired energy change. Compared to other German states, Brandenburg has a leading position in supporting and promoting renewable energies, earning the state the 'Best State for Renewable Energies' award. This latest solar power plant is another example of Germany being ideally suitable for projects of this dimension, an opinion shared by Andreas Fredrich, Senftenberg's mayor: "Thanks to the large number of former surface mining sites and developed energy grids, our region is a perfect location for large-scale photovoltaic systems."

The Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar, Dr. Shawn Qu, noted another key point for many communities: "Cities and communities not only profit from the positive environmental impact, they also receive trade tax income from the solar parks – or receive the feed-in tariffs when they operate the parks themselves. In addition, projects like this one also have a positive impact on the local economy. Most construction and operation contracts are awarded to local companies. Therefore, we are happy to have made our contribution to Brandenburg's economic development."

The Senftenberg II/III system was built on 200 hectares of the former Meuro surface mining plant in three months.  The premises are property of the Agrargenossenschaft Grossraeschen eG coop. providing space for 330,000 crystalline solar modules.  "With the Senftenberg project, we show that large-scale photovoltaic systems are faster to develop and build than any other type of power plant. Even today, in a country with fewer sun hours like Germany, we can produce energy cheaper than offshore wind power systems, for instance," said Dr. Marko Schulz, CEO of saferay GmbH. The project's investment frame of approximately 150 million Euros was provided by three German banks. Saferay holds two thirds of investments and operations.

The solar park development effort was initiated by Berlin-based project development company unlimited energy GmbH.  Besides establishing the required legal framework, unlimited energy focused on environmental protection in the plant's design. Torsten Kasch, Managing Director of unlimited energy GmbH, added: "We have established a total of 24 hectares just for the larks alone, outside the PV system. Moreover, the PV module rows are embedded into splendid wind protection belts and green belts that can become a welcoming habitat for birds and other species. Also, in the concept design for area maintenance, there is a strong focus on the protection of plants and animals."

About saferay GmbH

The saferay company, with headquarters in Berlin Berliner, is leading in the fast and cost-efficient construction of large-scale solar systems. Safeway builds and finances power plants primarily operated by themselves in order to take an active role in the design of future energy concepts in the world's largest energy markets. The team boasts an experience of more than 350 MW of power plant capacity.

About unlimited energy GmbH

The unlimited energy GmbH is a project developer in the field of renewable energies, in particular solar and wind energy. The company, with headquarters in Berlin, specializes in the special requirements on large-scale projects and already successfully developed solar parks and wind parks with several hundreds of Megawatts since its foundation. Besides the German key market, unlimited energy GmbH is mainly active in Bulgaria in the development or renewable energies.

About Canadian Solar

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) is one of the world's largest solar companies. As a leading vertically integrated provider of ingot, wafer, solar cell, solar module and other solar applications, Canadian Solar designs, manufactures and delivers solar products and solar system solutions for on-grid and off-grid use to customers worldwide. With operations in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, Canadian Solar provides premium quality, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly solar solutions to support global, sustainable development. For more information, please visit www.canadiansolar.com.

Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These statements are made under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by such terms as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "estimates," the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include the risks regarding the previously disclosed SEC investigation, as well as general business and economic conditions and the state of the solar industry; governmental support for the deployment of solar power; future available supplies of high-purity silicon; demand for end-use products by consumers and inventory levels of such products in the supply chain; changes in demand from significant customers; changes in demand from major markets such as Germany; changes in customer order patterns; changes in product mix; capacity utilization; level of competition; pricing pressure and declines in average selling prices; delays in new product introduction; continued success in technological innovations and delivery of products with the features customers demand; shortage in supply of materials or capacity requirements; availability of financing; exchange rate fluctuations; litigation and other risks as described in the Company's SEC filings, including its annual report on Form 20-F filed on May 17, 2011. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance, or achievements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All information provided in this press release is as of today's date, unless otherwise stated, and Canadian Solar undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

SOURCE Canadian Solar Inc.

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World's first solar plane takes flight

World?s first solar plane takes flight - Science - Canoe.ca
 
 
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World?s first solar plane takes flight
ByCHRISTOPHER LE COQ, Reuters

The solar-powered HB-SIA prototype flown by Solar Impulse's Chief Executive Officer and pilot Andre Borschberg, lands at Zaventem's international airport near Brussels May 13, 2011. (Reuters)

BRUSSELS - A solar energy plane made the world?s first international flight powered by the sun on Friday to show the potential for pollution-free air travel.

The Solar Impulse took off from an airfield at Payerne in western Switzerland on Friday morning and landed at Brussels airport after a 13-hour flight.

?The objective is to demonstrate what we can do with existing technology in terms of renewable energy and energy savings,? project co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg told Reuters by telephone during the flight.

Borschberg believes such solar-harnessing technology can be used to power cars and homes. ?It is symbolic to be able to go from one place to another using solar energy,? he said.

The Solar Impulse project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of 90 million euros ($128 million) and has involved engineers from Swiss lift maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay.

The plane, which requires 12,000 solar cells, embarked on its first flight in April 2010 and completed a 26-hour flight, a record flying time for a solar powered aircraft, three months later.

With an average flying speed of 70 km/h (44 mph), Solar Impulse is not an immediate threat to commercial jets, which can easily cruise at more than 10 times the speed. A flight from Geneva from Brussels can take little more than an hour.

Project leaders acknowledged it had been a major challenge to fit a slow-flying plane into the commercial air traffic system.

Friday?s flight was Solar Impulse?s fifth. Previous flights did not leave Switzerland. A larger prototype is scheduled to fly around the world in 2013.










We shouldn?t expect the kids to clean up our mess
I turned 75 in March. That means I probably won?t be around to see the worst impacts of climate change or any other looming environmental disasters ? or the much brighter future that may emerge if we get off our butts to address the problems.Full Column
Columnist DAVID SUZUKI

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