ROSEVILLE, CA.—(eSolarEnergyNews)—SPI Solar, a vertically-integrated photovoltaic solar developer, today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Xinyu Xinwei New Energy, has signed an engineering, procurement and construction agreement for a 30 megawatt  PV project in Alxa League, Inner Mongolia. The agreement with Alxa League ZhiWei PV Power Co., Ltd., marks SPI Solar’s second agreement for a PV project in the Inner Mongolia region announced this month. The project is scheduled to begin in October 2014, with completion and grid connection expected by the end of March 2015.

“We are pleased to have announced yet another EPC project in the Inner Mongolia region as we continue to establish a presence there while rapidly penetrating the market for solar across China overall,” said Xiaofeng Peng, Chairman of SPI. “We continue to see solid growth opportunities and are excited by our success thus far in this important market for SPI Solar.”

About Solar Power, Inc. (OTCBB: SOPW):

SPI Solar (“SPI”) (Solar Power, Inc.) is a vertically-integrated photovoltaic solar developer offering its own brand of high-quality, low-cost distributed generation and utility-scale solar energy facility development services. From project development, to project financing and to post-construction asset management, SPI delivers turnkey world-class photovoltaic solar energy facilities and turnkey residential solar solutions to its business, government and utility customers. For additional information visit: www.spisolar.com.

MILLBRAE, CA SCOTTSDALE, AZ—(eSolarEnergyNews)—Stem, a leader in advanced energy technology, today announced it has teamed with Kyocera Solar, Inc., a provider of innovative solar power solutions, to offer an integrated solar photovoltaic (PV) and energy storage solution for commercial power users. The new solution automatically reduces demand on the electric utility grid, providing guarantees for significant energy savings now and against possible future tariffs — benefits reinforced by using high-performance Kyocera solar modules. Kyocera is the first solar provider to offer Stem’s innovative solution, which is available now to businesses in California, Hawaii and New York looking to reduce energy costs by going solar.

“Intelligent energy storage is a natural fit for PV — and our solution integrates seamlessly with Kyocera’s solar technology to bring new value to the commercial market,” said Stem CEO John Carrington. “Kyocera’s expertise in providing turnkey solutions through its technology partners presents a great opportunity for Stem as we expand our offering to solar customers.”

Kyocera is the only solar module manufacturer to earn the highest rating across all six PV module test categories in GTM Research’s July 2014 PV Module Reliability Scorecard.

Stem’s advanced, behind-the-meter energy storage and predictive analytics combine to enable rapid response to spikes in commercial customers’ electricity demand, drawing on previously stored power to reduce energy costs. In aggregate, these systems can provide additional capacity to utilities during periods of variable solar generation and peak demand. Stem’s system can also predict power usage up to 30 days in advance, charging the on-site battery from the utility grid when rates are lowest, and saving customers up to 20% on their annual electricity bill.

“Kyocera is an industry leader in solar module reliability, and the Stem platform will optimize our customers’ energy use through real-time data and state-of-the-art energy storage technology,” said Steve Hill, president of Kyocera Solar, Inc. “Simply put, we believe our comprehensive solution offers a greater return, in a shorter period, and with a longer total lifespan, than any competing renewable energy system.”

To learn more about Kyocera Solar solutions for both residential and commercial projects in the U.S. and Latin America, please contact infosolar@kyocera.com or +1-800-223-9580.

BMW i Soho House announce global partnership. Exploration of innovation, arts and design.

London/Munich. Soho House Group (SHG) and BMW i today announced a global partnership across all of SHG’s 12 sites in Europe and North America. As Soho House Group’s global automotive partner, BMW i will provide BMW i3 vehicles for driving experiences for members and guests at many of its sites and cultural events. Soho House and BMW i will also collaborate on an international arts program throughout Soho House locations in Europe and the US. The two brands will co-create events and experiences focusing on contemporary art, innovation and design.

On Tuesday, October 14, 2014, the partnership kicks off at Shoreditch House in London, with an exclusive art talk between the photographer Juergen Teller and Chris Dercon, director of the Tate Modern: «The Naked Truth? Nudity, fashion, and the photographic image today.» The discussion will be followed by a rooftop reception in celebration of the partnership.

Nick Jones, Founder and CEO of Soho House said: «We were drawn to BMW because they share our passion for innovation across art and design. Our membership will see a range of co-curated members’ events and cultural celebrations such as Art Basel Miami. The launch of BMW i3 marks an exciting new era for electric cars and we are delighted to be able to offer our members and bedroom guests the opportunity to be among the first to drive them.»

Steven Althaus, Senior Vice President Brand Management BMW, Marketing Services BMW Group said: «BMW i and Soho House share a common mindset: both brands strive for innovation, creativity as well as a special sense for aesthetic setting new design standards. What I look forward to most about our partnership is our determination to create memorable and sophisticated experiences together.»

BMW i

BMW i stands for visionary vehicles and mobility services, visionary design and a new understanding of premium that is strongly geared towards sustainability. The BMW i brand redefines individual mobility by creating totally new and ground-breaking possibilities for networking in urban traffic. The BMW i3 is the world’s first premium electric vehicle purpose-built from the ground up for electric power using carbon fiber, creating a car that guarantees typical BMW sheer driving pleasure with zero emissions. Driver assistance systems and BMW ConnectedDrive mobility services specially developed for BMW i, combined with the services of 360° ELECTRIC, make emission-free mobility in the urban environment a fascinating everyday experience.

Further information: bmw-i.com

BMW’s Cultural Commitment

For over 40 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in more than 100 cultural partnerships worldwide. The focus of its commitment to culture is modern and contemporary art, jazz and classical music as well as architecture and design. BMW has worked with artists such as Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Eliasson, Jeff Koons or Zaha Hadid and is a partner of museums such as the Guggenheim in New York and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. In London, BMW in partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra, hosts the BMW LSO Open Air Classics, a yearly live concert free of charge in Trafalgar Square, and supports both BMW Tate Live as well as Frieze Art Fair.

Further information: bmwgroup.com/culture and bmwgroup.com/culture/overview

The BMW Group

With its three brands BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce, the BMW Group is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and also provides premium financial and mobility services. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 30 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.

In 2013, the BMW Group sold approximately 1.963 million cars and 115,215 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the financial year 2013 was € 7.91 billion on revenues amounting to approximately € 76.06 billion. As of 31 December 2013, the BMW Group had a workforce of 110,351 employees.

The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy.

Soho House

Soho House was founded in Greek Street, London, in 1995, as a private members’ club for those in film, media and the creative industries. The portfolio has since expanded to include clubs, hotels, restaurants and spas across the UK, Europe, the US and Canada. Each site is different, maintaining its own personality, but all have a sense of shared DNA as homes from home for members and guests.

Elsewhere in London is the Dean Street Townhouse — a four-storey 39 bedroom hotel and all-day dining room, located in Soho; Shoreditch House, an East London club with rooftop pool, gym, restaurants and 26 rooms; High Road House, a quiet outpost, featuring club, bar, brasserie and 14 rooms in Chiswick; and Little House, Mayfair’s best kept restaurant, bar and lounge. Moments away from Little House sits the first outpost of Cecconi’s, a modern day classic Italian restaurant open to the public for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week.in the last 10 years, Cecconi’s has travelled to West Hollywood and Miami, with further international restaurants on the horizon. Babington House, set in 18 acres of rural Somerset is home to 32 individually designed bedrooms, a 24 hour restaurant and the flagship Cowshed Spa.

Soho House Berlin opened in May 2010, in Berlin’s Mitte district and was the first venture in continental Europe. Occupying eight floors, the House has an expansive club floor, roof top pool and bar, 85 rooms and short let apartments, a fully equipped gym, screening room and Cowshed Spa with Hammam.

The company has been building its US footprint since Soho House New York opened in June 2003. Covering six floors, it’s housed in a 45,000 square feet period warehouse building in the Meatpacking District. The club offers extensive facilities; a restaurant, bar, 44-seat cinema and a rooftop pool as well as 30 spacious bedrooms and a Cowshed Spa. Soho House West Hollywood opened in May 2010 at 9000, Sunset Boulevard, it’s club floor, screening room, event spaces and garden terrace restaurant occupying the top floor and roof of an iconic office building.

Miami followed in October 2011, with 50 bedrooms situated over fifteen floors. Designed to combine vintage furniture and vibrant textiles to create an aura of South American glamour, the club is home to a screening snug, 2 pools, a beach club, Cowshed spa and Cecconi’s restaurant. In 2012 we opened Soho House Toronto, which launched with an array of events to celebrate the Toronto International Film Festival. Most recently, in August 2014, Soho House opened its largest property to date in Chicago.

Soho Houses are under construction in Istanbul (February 2015) and Barcelona (early 2016).

After approval by the European Commission the offshore joint venture forged between Vestas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) was launched. The joint venture called MHI Vestas Offshore Wind is responsible for the design, further development, procurement, manufacturing, installation, commissioning and service related to the new V164-8.0 MW turbine as well as all marketing, sales and after-sales service related to offshore wind.

ACCIONA Windpower (AWP), a subsidiary of the ACCIONA group that designs, manufactures and commercializes wind turbines, has signed a turbine supply contract in Brazil with the renewable energy generation holding company Atlantic Energias Renováveis for a total of 54 MW.

This year, Germany will see fewer photovoltaic systems installed month by month than in the previous year. A recent publication by the Federal Network Agency, which keeps a registry of all photovoltaic systems that receive EEG funding, confirms the downward trend. According to the latest figures available from the month of March, only 155.8 MW of new PV capacity was connected to the grid in Germany.

WASHINGTON—(eSolarEnergyNews)—As in Alice’s journey through the looking-glass to Wonderland, mirrors in the real world can sometimes behave in surprising and unexpected ways, including a new class of mirror that works like no other.

As reported today in The Optical Society’s (OSA) new high-impact journal Optica, scientists have demonstrated, for the first time, a new type of mirror that forgoes a familiar shiny metallic surface and instead reflects infrared light by using an unusual magnetic property of a non-metallic metamaterial.

By placing nanoscale antennas at or very near the surface of these so-called “magnetic mirrors,” scientists are able to capture and harness electromagnetic radiation in ways that have tantalizing potential in new classes of chemical sensors, solar cells, lasers, and other optoelectronic devices.

“We have achieved a new milestone in magnetic mirror technology by experimentally demonstrating this remarkable behavior of light at infrared wavelengths. Our breakthrough comes from using a specially engineered, non-metallic surface studded with nanoscale resonators,” said Michael Sinclair, co-author on the Optica paper and a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA who co-led a research team with fellow author and Sandia scientist Igal Brener.

These nanoscale cube-shaped resonators, based on the element tellurium, are each considerably smaller than the width of a human hair and even tinier than the wavelengths of infrared light, which is essential to achieve magnetic-mirror behavior at these incredibly short wavelengths.

“The size and shape of the resonators are critical,” explained Sinclair “as are their magnetic and electrical properties, all of which allow them to interact uniquely with light, scattering it across a specific range of wavelengths to produce a magnetic mirror effect.”

Early Magnetic Mirror Designs

Conventional mirrors reflect light by interacting with the electrical component of electromagnetic radiation. Because of this, however, they do more than reverse the image; they also reverse light’s electrical field. Though this has no impact on the human eye, it does have major implications in physics, especially at the point of reflection where the opposite incoming and outgoing electrical fields produce a canceling effect. This temporary squelching of light’s electrical properties prevents components like nanoscale antennas and quantum dots from interacting with light at the mirror’s surface.

A magnetic mirror, in contrast, reflects light by interacting with its magnetic field, preserving its original electrical properties. “A magnetic mirror, therefore, produces a very strong electric field at the mirror surface, enabling maximum absorption of the electromagnetic wave energy and paving the way for exciting new applications,” said Brener.

Unlike silver and other metals, however, there is no natural material that reflects light magnetically. Magnetic fields can reflect and even bottle-up charged particles like electrons and protons. But photons, which have no charge, pass through freely.

“Nature simply doesn’t provide a way to magnetically reflect light,” explained Brener. Scientists, therefore, are developing metamaterials (materials not found in nature, engineered with specific properties) that are able to produce the magnetic-mirror effect.

Initially, this could only be achieved at long microwave frequencies, which would enable only a few applications, such as microwave antennas.

More recently, other researchers have achieved limited success at shorter wavelengths using “fish-scale” shaped metallic components. These designs, however, experienced considerable loss of signal, as well as an uneven response due to their particular shapes.

Mirrors Without Metals

To overcome these limitations, the team developed a specially engineered two-dimensional array of non-metallic dielectric resonators—nanoscale structures that strongly interact with the magnetic component of incoming light. These resonators have a number of important advantages over the earlier designs.

First, the dielectric material they use, tellurium, has much lower signal loss than do metals, making the new design much more reflective at infrared wavelengths and creating a much stronger electrical field at the mirror’s surface. Second, the nanoscale resonators can be manufactured using standard deposition-lithography and etching processes, which are already widely used in industry.

The reflective properties of the resonators emerge because they behave, in some respects, like artificial atoms, absorbing and then reemitting photons. Atoms naturally do this by absorbing photons with their outer electrons and then reemitting the photons in random directions. This is how molecules in the atmosphere scatter specific wavelengths of light, causing the sky to appear blue during the day and red at sunrise and sunset.

The metamaterials in the resonators achieve a similar effect, but absorb and reemit photons without reversing their electric fields.

Proof of the Process

Confirming that the team’s design was actually behaving like a magnetic mirror required exquisite measurements of how the light waves overlap as they pass each other coming in and reflecting off of the mirror surface. Since normal mirrors reverse the phase of light upon reflection, evidence that the phase signature of the wave was not reversed would be the “smoking gun” that the sample was behaving as a true magnetic mirror.

To make this detection, the Sandia team used a technique called time-domain spectroscopy, which has been widely used to measure phase at longer terahertz wavelengths. According to the researchers, only a few groups in the world have demonstrated this technique at shorter wavelengths (less than 10 microns). The power of this technique is that it can map both the amplitude and phase information of light’s electric field.

“Our results clearly indicated that there was no phase reversal of the light,” remarked Sheng Liu, Sandia postdoctoral associate and lead author on the Optica paper. “This was the ultimate demonstration that this patterned surface behaves like an optical magnetic mirror.”

Next steps

Looking to the future, the researchers will investigate other materials to demonstrate magnetic mirror behavior at even shorter, optical wavelengths, where extremely broad applications can be found. “If efficient magnetic mirrors could be scaled to even shorter wavelengths, then they could enable smaller photodetectors, solar cells, and possibly lasers,” Liu concluded.

Paper: S. Liu, M. B. Sinclair, T. S. Mahony, Y. C. Jun, S. Campione, J. Ginn, D. Bender, J. R. Wendt, J.F. Ihlefeld, P. G. Clem, J. B. Wright, I. Brener, “Optical Magnetic Mirrors without Metals,” Optica 4, 247-253 (2014).

EDITOR’S NOTE: An image and advanced copy of the Optica paper are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Jake Lynn at optica@ecius.net or 202.296.2002.