20110818 1012 Renewable Energy Related News.

FIRST SOLAR EXECUTIVE MEYERHOFF LEAVING COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, Aug 16 (Reuters) - First Solar Inc  on Tuesday said the head of its utility systems business, Jens Meyerhoff, is leaving the company, effective Sept. 30.
James Brown, senior vice president of utility systems business sales, will succeed Meyerhoff in the utility-scale solar unit and will report to Chief Executive Rob Gillette.

LOW WATER ON CONGO RIVER TRIGGERS KINSHASA BLACKOUTS
KINSHASA, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo's main hydro-power plant is running at half capacity due to low water levels, triggering long blackouts in Kinshasa and causing havoc for the city's businesses.
Problems with the Inga I and II dams come as Congo struggles with broken equipment at the decades-old plant, which could lead to continued outages even after water levels come back up, officials said.

JINKOSOLAR SHINES IN GLOOMY MARKET, SHARES RISE
BANGALORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - JinkoSolar Holding Co  posted strong quarterly results and expects sales growth to hold up this year as the Chinese solar company continues to make inroads into newer regions, cheering up investors in a gloomy market.
The company's shares, which have shed 17 percent of their value so far this year, rose 11 percent to a high of $18.66 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The wider MAC Solar Energy Index was down 2 percent.

DONG ENERGY SELLS STAKE IN NORWAY WIND POWER FIRM
COPENHAGEN, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Denmark's DONG Energy has sold its half of Norwegian wind power producer Nordkraft Vind to co-owner Nordkraft Produksjon for 145 million Norwegian crowns ($26.7 million, DONG said.
"The size of DONG Energy's portfolio of wind projects in Norway is found no longer to warrant a continued
strategic focus on expansion of the Norwegian market," state-owned DONG Energy said in a statement.

DAQO NEW ENERGY GETS $153.4 MLN LOAN; Q2 PROFIT DOUBLES
Aug 15 (Reuters) - Daqo New Energy Corp  said Bank of China  had approved a $153.4 million (980 million Chinese yuan) loan to expand its polysilicon production and the Chinese solar company said its second-quarter profit more than doubled.
Daqo New Energy ADSs were trading up 7 percent at $6.82 on Monday morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange. They rose as much as 8 percent earlier in the session.

BREAKINGVIEWS-SOLAR FIRM'S DEMISE SIGNALS GRAY INDUSTRY FORECAST
NEW YORK, Aug 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The forecast looks gray for solar energy. Evergreen Solar , one of the first U.S. green energy firms to go public, just went bankrupt. Worth almost $2 billion a few years ago, the company was mainly the victim of a supply glut hitting the whole industry. While bigger players may survive, it will probably be some time before they flourish.
It's easy to forget Evergreen was once an investor darling. Its technology enabled it to produce panels using far less polysilicon -- the industry's primary raw material -- than peers. That was a trump card in 2007 and 2008 when silicon prices were 10 times higher than they are now. But it became less useful as prices tumbled. And Evergreen suffered for building up pricey production capacity in Massachusetts instead of in cheaper locales.

U.S. SOLAR COMPANY EVERGREEN FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY
LOS ANGELES, Aug 15 (Reuters) - U.S. solar company Evergreen Solar Inc  filed for bankruptcy on Monday, its once cutting-edge technology falling victim to competition from cheaper Chinese rivals and solar subsidy cuts in Europe.
The Chapter 11 filing by a company once seen at the forefront of U.S. renewable energy technology came after a two-year struggle to stave off competition from Asia. The increasingly crowded market forced Evergreen to close its much-touted but short-lived Massachusetts factory and relocate manufacturing to China, and resulted in the virtual disappearance of its once-lofty stock market value.

ASCENT SOLAR TO SELL STAKE, EYES CHINA GROWTH; SHARES SOAR
BANGALORE, Aug 15 (Reuters) - U.S. photovoltaic cell maker Ascent Solar Technologies Inc  said it would sell a fifth of its shares to China's TFG Radiant Group and the two parties plan to set up manufacturing facilities in east Asia, in a deal valued at about $450 million.
Ascent shares more than doubled to $1.50 on Monday morning on Nasdaq -- their biggest intra-day percentage gain in at least two years. The deal will help the U.S. cell maker to build its presence in fast-growing solar markets in east Asia, especially in China.

SOLAR POWER FOR TRAINS DAWNS IN RAINY BELGIUM
SCHOTEN, Belgium, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Trains already have a reputation for being a very clean form of transport but Belgian commuters can now boast railways which are partially powered by solar energy.
A public-private consortium consisting of Belgian rail management company Infrabel and solar developer Enfinity has installed 16,000 solar panels on the roof of a 3.4 km (2.1 miles) long tunnel between Antwerp and the Dutch border, creating enough electricity to power 4,000 trains a year.

SOLAR REVENUE TO SHRINK AS PRICE DROPS OUTPACE GROWTH
LOS ANGELES, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Solar industry revenue will shrink before it begins to rise again because dramatic price declines on solar panels will outweigh corresponding volume increases, according to a new report by Lux Research.
Revenue in the solar power industry is expected to slip to $56.9 billion in 2012 from $64.4 billion in 2010, Lux said in a report released on Thursday.

EUROPE PRESSES CANADA OVER GREEN POWER RULES AT WTO
BRUSSELS, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The European Union has started a legal challenge against Canada at the World Trade Organization to protest against provincial backing for solar and wind energy projects, the bloc's executive said on Thursday.
The case centres on a scheme in the Canadian province of Ontario that guarantees minimum prices for renewable energy generated with Canadian-made equipment.

ARISE TECH'S Q2 NET LOSS NARROWS ON LOWER OPER COSTS
Aug 11 (Reuters) - Solar technology company Arise Technologies  posted a narrower net loss for the second quarter as it slashed costs to combat oversupply issues in the photovoltaic cell market.
Net loss for the quarter was C$4.6 million ($4.7 million), or 2 Canadian cents per share, compared with a net loss of C$13.8 million, or 9 Canadian cents per share, a year ago.