Business Briefs for the Week of Jan. 11, 2009

Chesapeake, Va.-based Solar Panels Plus (SPP) and Lawrence, Mass.-based Solectria Renewablesannounced a partnership to integrate SPP's photovoltaic (PV) panels with Solectria's grid-tied inverters. Installing SPP's photovoltaic solar panels with Solectria's grid-tied inverters will enable residential and commercial customers to take advantage of net-metering to offset the cost of purchased electricity.

Kingston, N.Y.-based SunWize has been awarded solar power contracts exceeding $7.8 million by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). The contracts consist of 10 solar hospital projects that call for more than 1.1MW of PV systems to be installed in locations across the country.

Fenton, Mo.-based Kaiser Electric has been given just four months to design and install electrical and communications systems for Lewis Rice & Fingersh's law offices in downtown St. Louis. In order to meet the schedule demands and expedite the rough-in process, the Kaiser Electric crew assembled materials for the project off-site, floor by floor. Kaiser also initially doubled its crew size to allow work on the ceiling to be completed quickly so that the ceiling grid could be installed ahead of schedule.

GE has received a $1.4 billion contract from independent power producer Caithness Energy to supply wind turbines and provide services for an 845MW wind farm project to be located in Oregon. The wind farm, called Shepherds Flat, has received the majority of the necessary government permits to operate and is ready to be built. When completed, it will be larger than any wind farm currently in operation around the globe.

REC Solar recently announced an agreement to build a 197.4kW solar power system on a federal facility in West Haven, Conn. When completed at the end of spring in 2010, the system will be the largest solar power generator built by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) in Connecticut.