China Wins Deal of One of World's Largest Solar Power Plant in the U.S.

        Trina Solar Unlimited, one of the world's leading PV companies founded in 1997, had announced today that it will supply 1.1 million photovoltaic panels for a 250-megawatt power plant to be built in the Nevada Desert. It will not only be one of the world's largest photovoltaic power stations but it will also be the largest in the U.S. to use Chinese-made solar panels.
        While Chinese companies have attained control of most of the U.S. residential market, utilities and developers of solar power plants have actually favored U.S. companies such as First Solar and SunPower. However, this favoritism is drastically changing. In November, another Chinese solar manufacturer Yingli, won a contract to provide panels for a 200-megawatt power plant under construction in the California desert outside of San Diego.
         As the Chinese market is advancing, Trina Solar and Yingli are emerging as China's top competitors in the power plant industry. Thus, Trina and Yingli have taken measures to ensure distance from other Chinese manufacturers, whom are faced extreme pressure to cut costs as they struggle with billions of dollars in debt, and emphasize the quality of their products.

Solar Power Helps Pump Oil

      Built by GlassPoint Solar, a Fremont company that uses renewable power to squeeze oil from the ground, a new solar steam plant has been developed in the Middle East, specifically the Omani desert. GlassPoint Solar, raising approximately $32 million in venue capital, has a small pilot plant in Kern County that has been generating steam for two years. Known as the Oman plant, it is 27 times bigger than the relatively small pilot plant, producing a average of 50 tons of steam per day.
       "Oman doesn't have the massive oil reserves of some of its neighbors, and its production started declining more than 10 years ago," said John O'Donnell, GlassPoint's Vice President of Business Development. "Steam-flooding an old field can help boost production. Plus, Oman has heavy oil deposits that are hard to develop without steam." O'Donnell added, "most steam-flooding operations burn natural gas to generate the steam, but Oman doesn't have large gas reserves of its own. And the price of importing it is high, more than three times its current cost in the United States."
         GlassPoint's technology is a low-cost twist on the conventional display of solar power plants in the past. GlassPoint's mirrors are made from thin, lightweight and inexpensive aluminium sheets. A decent breeze could knock the mirrors out of alignment so GlassPoint has them inside of glass greenhouses. Most of the materials can be bought from shelves from many suppliers. "Solar will be, by far, the cheapest way of complying with the standard," O'Donnell said. "As that develops, obviously we'll be keenly interested. We're a California company."

GlassPoint Solar