NC solar farm approved, SunPower Corp, California company, 5 megawatt project
NC solar farm approved, SunPower Corp, California company, 5 megawatt project
From The Triangle Business Journal December 10, 2010.
“San Jose, Calif.-based SunPower Corp. is scouting out investors to finance construction of what could become one of the largest solar energy facilities in the state.
SunPower’s proposal to build a 5 megawatt project on a 42-acre swath of land in Murfreesboro, Hertford County, in northeastern North Carolina has received approvals from state utilities regulators. Kurt Johnson, business development manager for SunPower, says the company is now in talks with potential investors, but he wouldn’t reveal how much the company is trying to raise.”
From Sunpower Corp.
“Early Successes Drive Global Demand
SunPower’s first major customers were anything but typical. In 1993, Honda Motor Company called with the news that they planned to compete in the annual Darwin to Adelaide solar car race across Australia. Honda wanted the most efficient solar cells on the planet to power their vehicle. Accordingly, SunPower’s engineers went to work crafting high-efficiency solar concentrator cells – and Honda won the race. Not by a minute or by an hour, but by an entire day. NASA took note, choosing SunPower’s cells for the world’s first solar-powered aircraft, the High-Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) UAV Project. Soaring at 96,863 feet, the flight broke all prior altitude records.
Meanwhile, PowerLight was becoming a “name” in the solar industry. The company completed the first commercial PV installation in North America, a 200 kilowatt (kW) solar-powered system at the Mauna Lani Resort in Hawaii. Next up: America’s biggest rooftop solar system (comprised of 14,000 panels), at a Long Island, New York corporation. And in 2004, the company notched its biggest success: the completion of the Bavaria Solarpark power plant in Germany. With nearly 60,000 of SunPower’s panels generating 10.1 megawatts (MW) of power, at the time it was the world’s largest PV installation.
By the late 1990s, the PowerLight team set a goal to add new technologies that would enable solar panels to be used for ground-mounted solar projects. PowerLight Trackers went on to transform the worldwide market for ground-mounted solar trackers, which increase efficiency by following the sun throughout the day.
As the New Millennium dawned, both SunPower and PowerLight were industry leaders. The summer of 2003 brought the dedication of SunPower’s solar cell fabrication facility in the Philippines; the first “fab” constructed outside of Japan, Europe or the U.S. The company also made significant inroads into the international solar marketplace. In November of 2005, the wide-scale industry acceptance of SunPower’s products led to the company’s initial public offering.
A short year later, SunPower announced its intention to acquire PowerLight – and on January 10, 2007, SunPower and PowerLight became one entity. To this day, our legacy of technological innovation and solar expertise ensures that our customers continue to enjoy substantial environmental and financial benefits.
Technology We Believe In
Today, Dr. Swanson’s original vision – that solar energy generated from massive installations in the desert might power the electrical grid – is about to become reality. In 2008, SunPower signed an agreement with PG&E to build the world’s largest – 250 MW – photovoltaic (PV) power plant, set to begin energy delivery in 2010. Florida Power & Light Co. also contracted with us to provide 25 MW of electricity in 2009, and another 10 MW by the end of 2010.
We continue to provide high-energy solar systems for the world’s business and technology leaders, governmental agencies, retailers and other entities, along with the highest-efficiency solar panels for our international residential customers. And, in addition to our U.S. bases of operation, SunPower maintains offices in Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland as well as Singapore, Korea, and Australia.
What’s next? At SunPower we’re always striving to improve our technologies and drive solar power innovation, all with the goal of changing the way the world is powered. After all, there’s always something new under the sun.”
http://us.sunpowercorp.com/about/history.php
Short URL: http://greenenergyon-line.com/?p=154
Posted by admin
on Dec 13 2010. Filed under Active solar, Green News, NC, North Carolina, Solar Energy.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.