The Phoenix Sun

First Solar power plant

It’s always gratifying when independent online news sites scoop the Big Boys of the MSM.

It’s especially pleasing when it’s your site that did the scooping. So, while we are proud of our story early yesterday on First Solar’s plan to build the world’s largest solar power plant in China, today we want to do what independent news services should be able to do best — provide our readers with more in-depth reporting than is available elsewhere.

We’ve put together a complete package of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between First Solar and China, including the detailed information First Solar filed with the SEC (click on the report cover below to open the pdf file). .. continue reading ..

Lieberose Solar Farm, Germany

When German officials ceremoniously placed the 560,000th solar panel onto its frame at the Lieberose solar power plant on August 20, the crowd applauded for several reasons. The most obvious reason to celebrate was the fact that by adding that single panel, the 53 MW Lieberose had become the second largest solar power plant in the world (the largest is a 60 MW plant in Olmedilla, Spain ).

But it was also a happy moment for First Solar, the Tempe, Arizona-based manufacturer of the thin-film PV panels. The global economic slowdown has hit the solar industry hard. Even in this business environment, First Solar and it’s partner in the venture, Juwi Holding, AG, managed to keep the project on track. The solar facility should begin generating electricity later this year, when all 700,000 panels are in place.

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No, the Other China Syndrome

Not to suggest that the problems of nuclear power have been solved, but for the last couple of weeks the MSM have been focusing on the “other” China syndrome — the one that involves solar energy, not nukes.

Writing for the NYT, Keith Bradsher summed up the issue neatly in his opening paragraph.

WUXI, China — President Obama wants to make the United States “the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy,” but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy — especially in solar power, and even in the United States.

Wait a minute, if China is going all out for solar, why do opponents of any climate change bill invariably cite China’s giant CO2-belching economy as a justification for their opposition?

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