January 14, 2002—A half-dozen solar power projects and project expansions were completed in the last quarter of 2001, suggesting that the US market for solar energy is growing, according to a report from the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.
The projects included:
- In December, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors in California decided to expand its 640-kilowatt solar electric system to 1.14 megawatts.
- PowerLight Corp. recently installed a 335-kilowatt solar electric system on the roof of Cypress Semiconductor in San Jose, Calif., and has started round-the-clock manufacturing of its solar roof tiles to meet increasing demand.
- AstroPower Inc. and Standard Pacific of San Diego will make solar electric power a standard feature in the new Standard Pacific Maravu community in southern California.
- Washington state’s largest solar photovoltaic system, a 23-kilowatt installation on the roof of the Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center on Bainbridge Island, was recently completed by the Schott Applied Power Corporation.
- In Maryland, Siemens Solar Industries completed what the company claims to be the world’s largest solar roadway lighting project—more than a mile of roadway in Research Triangle Park, NC, is now lit by the company’s 200-watt solar electric lighting systems. The roadway leads to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Headquarters Campus.
- The New Energy Company, a maker of high-concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) systems, announced contracts to install four 1-megawatt HCPV systems at Teixeira Farms Inc. in Santa Maria, Calif., and one 220-kilowatt HCPV system at Andrew Martin Company Inc. in Carson, Calif.
Based on a report from the Energy Department’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network.
