While ASX-listed Silex Systems intends to suspend its planned 100 MW CPV plant...

Companies mentioned: Silex systems, ARENA, Arzon Solar, UC Irvine, U.S. Department of Energy, Amonix, Just Energy

CPV News13 – 26 August 2014

Policy uncertainty at heart of Silex Mildura CPV plant suspension

By Heba Hashem

ASX-listed Silex Systems intends to suspend its planned 100 MW CPV plant near Mildura, with "low wholesale electricity prices and uncertainty around the Renewable Energy Target" among "a number of factors". In a release to the stock exchange, the company said a review of its funding by subsidiary Solar Systems and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency led to the decision.

The decision means the company has forfeited up to $75m in conditional support from ARENA, and $35m from the Victorian Government via its Energy Technology Innovation Strategy Fund. Silex chief executive Michael Goldsworthy said according to media reports that the company would consider a smaller project at the site.

The project was planned to follow the company's 1.5 MW solar demonstration facility, which opened last year and features the firm's ‘Dense Array’ concentrated PV dish technology.

Goldsworthy said the demonstration facility had "captured a great deal of useful data" that could be used for "alternative opportunities". ARENA chief executive Ivor Frischknect said the agency remained open to any new or revised Silex projects "ready for demonstration or testing".

CPV helps power US greenest university

University of California Irvine is the greenest school in the nation, according to the Sierra Club’s magazine. Two Arzon Solar 7700 systems have been providing the school with about 120kW of solar energy since 2012.

The university is so energy-efficient that five of its buildings are certified as producing “zero waste,” because 95 percent or more of its wastes is reused or recycled, according to the Orange County register.

The “cool school” title follows the U.S. Department of Energy lauding UCI as the first school in the nation to reduce its energy use by at least 20 percent. School officials estimated that UCI has saved $50m in energy costs over the last 20 years.

In 2008, the university pledged to cut its energy use by 20 percent by 2020. UCI hit the target by 2013, according to Sierra, and re-enlisted to drop another 20 percent by 2020.

Former Amonix CFO moves to Just Energy

Just Energy Group, a competitive retailer of natural gas and electricity, has hired Patrick McCullough as Chief Financial Officer. 

McCullough has an 18 year career of progressive experience in senior financial roles, most recently as the Chief Executive Officer of Amonix, a California based designer and manufacturer of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar power systems, a role he took on as part of a global restructuring in June 2012. He had been the CFO of Amonix since May 2010.

In 2013, Arzon Solar acquired the assets and technology of Amonix Inc.