First Solar News

Over the past three years, P. Ravindran’s commute from his southern Indian village has been about more than getting to work - the SIM card seller sees his daily trip on India’s first solar-powered ferry as doing his bit for the green revolution.“I am proud to be a frequent traveler on the Aditya... I am being part of cleaning the Earth,” said Ravindran, who uses the boat most days to travel to the town of Vaikom on Lake Vembanad.The Aditya’s green credentials have attracted international…

In 2050, the port of Rotterdam will still be a thriving centre of economic activity and employment. The main difference with today’s port is that this activity and this employment will be generated by industry and shipping sectors that release next to no emissions. Re-using waste will be the most natural thing in the world. The port will be even safer and healthier thanks to digitisation and new technologies. And there will be an even stronger focus on the ‘human dimension’. This, in a nutshell, is Remco Neumann’s vision of the future. And according to Neumann, the Port of Rotterdam Authority’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme manager, this future is closer than many people think.

Majestic Fast Ferry’s newest ferry, the Majestic Dream, set sail on a maiden voyage from Singapore Cruise Centre’s (SCC) HarbourFront terminal. The 11th vessel in Majestic Fast Ferry’s fleet will ply the operator’s existing routes between Singapore and the Riau Islands in Indonesia. It will serve passengers travelling to and from SCC’s HarbourFront and Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal in Singapore, Batam Center and Sekupang terminals in Batam as well as Tanjung Pinang in Bintan. The ferry was designed by Australian naval architect and engineering service firm Incat Crowther. It is the second series of ships built by Majestic Fast Ferry at its shipyard on Batam Island, following its first series comprising Majestic 7, 8 and 9.

Residents of Islampur, a remote village in the northern Bangladeshi district of Naogaon, were stunned one night last summer when the darkness was suddenly illuminated by electric lights coming from a village home. Why the surprise? The community has no connection to the country's power grid. The owner of the house, Rafiqul Islam, is one of around 15 million Bangladeshis whose homes are now powered by solar home systems, or SHS, under a government scheme to provide clean power to communities with no access to grid electricity. The Bangladeshi government aims to provide electricity to all of the country's households by 2021. With financial assistance from the World Bank and other development partners…

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won an order worth around $55 million from Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA), the leading power utility in United Arab Emirates (UAE), to build a substation that will integrate power from the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park. The order was awarded in the third quarter of 2014. The gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) substation will enhance transmission capacity, boost power supplies and strengthen the reliability of the grid. The 100 megawatt (MW) Phase II of the solar power plant in Seih Al Dahal, about 50 kilometers (km) south of Dubai, is scheduled to commence generation in 2017. The solar park is one of the biggest renewable energy projects in the Middle East and North Africa.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency today celebrated a major milestone with the installation of the first solar panels at AGL’s large-scale solar plant in Nyngan, NSW. ARENA’s CEO Ivor Frischknecht joined federal and state officials, key stakeholders, community representatives and local workers at the 250 hectare construction site to congratulate project developers, AGL and First Solar, on this significant achievement. “The advanced thin-film PV modules being installed today are the first of around 1.35 million panels that will harvest sunlight for the 102 MW solar plant,” Mr Frischknecht said. ”ARENA is very pleased to be supporting this landmark project which…

Shock Mitigation and the RIB & HSC Directory are official sponsors and media partners with the Solar1 event in Monte Carlo. Solar powered boats from all over the world are set to battle it out over two days in the first truly green solar powered boat world championship. From July 10-12, 2014 the historic Yacht Club de Monaco is hosting the Solar1 event, competing for the Monte Carlo Cup. Developed by universities all over the world and driven by young students, this race is destined to be a significant future facing sport.

To mark the Chairmanship of Masamichi Morooka, the International Chamber of Shipping was last night presented with a scale model of the award-winning NYK car carrier Auriga Leader, the world’s first solar-assisted vessel to be put into commercial service. The model was formally presented to ICS by Yasumi Kudo, President of NYK, in the presence of the ICS Chairman. The 60,000-metric-ton vessel is fitted with 328 solar panels which can generate as much as 40 kilowatts of power.

After several days of waiting for favorable weather, the MS Tûranor Planet Solar, the largest solar boat in the world, left the city of Boston, carrying three scientific team members from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), and a researcher from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the largest center of its kind in the world, with whom UNIGE is collaborating for this expedition. This important stopover in the capital of Massachusetts was crucial in the planning of the “DeepWater” expedition’s itinerary…

After completing the world’s first solar-powered journey around the world, 'PlanetSolar' has a marine science mission. The unique ocean-going catamaran has found a new occupation for the New Year. PlanetSolar is intended to be the mode of transport for the Deepwater Project, a scientific mission led by the University of Geneva to collect data on the Gulf Stream’s behavior, the ocean current responsible for maintaining much of Europe’s temperate  climate. The advantage of using PlanetSolar for such an expedition is that it’s emissions-free…

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line; head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; president: Yasumi Kudo), Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. (KHI; head office: Kobe-shi, Hyogo Prefecture; president: Satoshi Hasegawa), the Monohakobi Technology Institute (MTI; head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; president: Yutaka Yasunaga), and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK; head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; chairman and president: Noboru Ueda) are to begin in June shipboard tests to verify the effects of a jointly developed hybrid power supply system for vessels.

For centuries, sailing has been about how to catch the wind. Now it is becoming a question of how to catch the sun. Australian inventor Robert Dane has designed and built the world's first solar-powered ferry, the Solar Sailor, which is driven by both solar and wind power and took top prize in this year's Australian Design Awards. "Solar energy and boats are at the same stage as where the Wright Brothers were when they were first developing the plane," says Tom Godfrey from the Australian Design Awards. The Solar Sailor offers an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional diesel-powered craft and has been operating commercially on Sydney Harbor for the last six months.