Sonepar CEO wants global sales to double in next decade
Marie-Christine Coisne-Roquette, Sonepar’s chairwoman and chief executive, honored by Financial Times as one of the top 50 women in world business in 2011, has big plans for the family-owned Sonepar, one of the largest privately held companies in the world. In an article in Campden FB (formerly Families in Business) magazine, Coisne-Roquette said she wants to double global revenues in the next 10 years from approximately $17 billion in 2011. Coisne-Roquette spoke on a number of other subjects, including succession planning and running a fifth-generation family business with 56 shareholders.
First Solar to construct 20MW solar project in Maryland
Thin-film module maker First Solar, Tempe, Ariz., announced a 100 percent stake in Maryland Solar, a 20-megawatt (AC) photovoltaic solar power project in Hagerstown, Md. The project, which has a contract to sell electricity and renewable energy credits to FirstEnergy Solutions, is expected to start construction in Q2 2012 and be completed in Q4 2012. It will use First Solar’s thin film PV modules to generate enough clean, renewable energy to power approximately 2,700 average Maryland homes.
Obama launches EV-Everywhere Challenge to advance technology
At an event Mar. 7 at the Daimler Truck factory in Mt. Holly, N.C., President Obama launched EV-Everywhere, the second in a series of Energy Department “Clean Energy Grand Challenges.” The EV Everywhere Challenge will bring together DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Program, the Office of Science, and ARPA-E, working with industry and universities to set technical goals for cutting costs for the batteries and electric drivetrain systems, including motors and power electronics, reducing the vehicle weights while maintaining safety, and increasing fast-charge rates. The goal is to enable companies in the United States to produce an affordable 5-passenger electric vehicle with a payback time of less than 5 years by 2020. DOE will be organizing EV-Everywhere Challenge workshops across the country over the next few months.