The booming large scale and rooftop PV market in 2018 is providing reasons to be optimistic about the future of solar under the Australian sun. Reflecting on his six-year tenure as CEO at ARENA ahead of his departure in August, Ivor Frischknecht points to the role the agency played in bringing down the costs of large scale solar as ARENA’s greatest achievement.

In the face of actual and threatened tariffs in the US and India, the world’s biggest solar manufacturers may have to set up shop in the protectionist nations in question ahead of a predicted cooling in their home market

For decades, hydrogen has been sold to us as the energy carrier of the future. You might not want to hear it anymore, because the future never seems to start. But times will change as recent developments in Germany indicate, writes Berlin-based renewable energy consultant, Stephan Franz.

As global economies develop, and uses for renewable energy diversifies, new pressures are being placed on the electric network. Yet, utilities are sitting on a wealth of data that can reveal better insights into their operations, writes Dan Beasley, Director, Utilities, Cyient.

Alexander Schönfeldt of energy storage specialists, Younicos examines the growing trend of energy storage-as-a-service, and explains why the sector is growing at such a rate.

Dutch/German transmission operator Tennet Holding B.V. has launched a €1.25 billion green bond program. The issuance is backed by five major banks – BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, ING Bank, Lloyds and Rabobank.

With 34 of the 38 key technologies needed to hit the Paris Agreement’s best-case scenario falling short, PV and electric vehicles are keeping hopes alive

Invenergy plans to maintain day-to-day management of its renewable energy business, with the Québecois fund manager increasing its economic stake to 52%.

Germany-based PV-storage provider sonnen has closed a new funding round from a group of investors led by Shell Ventures. Sonnen has already began to draw on the funds as it continues to expand market shares in the U.S. and in Australia. Shell Ventures is now a major sonnen investor and future cooperation agreement has been agreed to.

SMA says its new product will offer digital services such as monitoring and automatic notifications to perform maintenance as well as offering an emergency supply system. According to analysts, the varied applications of new inverters signal an increasingly competitive marketplace.

The world’s first digital, autonomous, closed-end, utility-scale PV project investment fund – enabling people with any budget to become co-owners of projects – has announced the implementation of its first arrays, in Kazakhstan, with 4 MW in the north-west of the country and 4 MW in the south. Solar DAO says it will save about $50,000 per MW since total development costs will be less than $5,000 per MW.

Pars Reys Energy Bahar, a subsidiary of French energy company Hanau Energies Group has announced the completion of an 8.5 MW PV project in in Damavand County, 130 km from Iranian capital Tehran.

British developer Lightsource has announced the acquisition of Irish software company Ubiworx. The company is a specialist in the internet of things and has already worked closely with Lightsource over the past two years

Chilean company Cerro Dominador have announced the signing of a $758 million deal to finance the first combined concentrated solar power-PV project in Latin America – a 210 MW scheme in the Atacama desert

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced it will work alongside the Clean Technology Fund and Asian Development Bank to provide a loan for the construction of a 50 MW solar power plant in Kazakhstan’s central Baikonur region.

Several scientist have joined to rebut an Australian article that questions the feasibility of a global energy transition. For this purpose, they have gathered hundreds of studies on energy systems and conclude, that there are neither fundamental technical nor financial barriers to achieve 100% renewable energy supply.

Chinese module giant JinkoSolar today announced that it hit record power output levels for modules based on p-type and n-type technology. Both records are confirmed by TÜV Rheinland in Shanghai.

GAAP gross margin improved 4% year-on-year, while shipments grew by 345 MW in the most recent quarter. Through the acquisition of the U.S.-based UPS provider, the Israeli inverter supplier makes its first move outside of the pure-play solar sector.

A recently published report on commodity markets published by the World Bank indicates that the recent decline in commodity prices for silver is likely to continue over the next 10-20 years. The looming trade dispute between the U.S. and China is impeding investor trust, as future outlook remains murky.

A very small implantable device that can be used to control brain patterns has been developed by Japanese researchers using photovoltaic technology. The device is both the smallest and the lightest wireless optical biodevice to have ever been developed.

Solartech Universal plans to expand its current 80 MW/year capacity by 180 MW/year. The company is seeking a facility in South Florida.

The country will achieve solar PV capacity of 50 to 75 GW by 2022 – a little over 60% of the 100 GW target. Total rooftop capacity will be less than 10 GW.

PV inverter shipment volumes have gone up recently, but an increasingly competitive market has seen declining prices, forcing manufacturers to think out of the box to find new business applications for their products.

GCL System Integration Technology (GCL-Si) has revealed tentative plans to buy an unspecified state-linked semiconductor manufacturer, with Chinese media reports suggesting that the Shenzhen-listed PV module supplier may leave the solar cell and module business to exclusively focus on producing wafers for the semiconductor industry.

The Tesla/Panasonic gigafactory is taking on more workers, as a sign of health. However many details remain unclear.

In this op-ed for pv magazine, Clean Coalition’s Frank Wasco explores how microgrid projects by Solar Saves Lives and other organizations show that communities can build back right and prepare for natural disasters.

A much heralded report shows solar and wind will lower wholesale prices, but it also shows a coming evolution in the pricing profile of the grid. These shifts in timing, shape, regularity and length will drive energy storage demand.

To smoothen this transition, the country needs to build fast solar PV-powered charging stations. In 2017, there were only 220-250 operational charging stations in India, compared to 56,000 petrol stations.

Autarsys reports the roll-out of two off-grid battery systems in Madagascar. Thanks to crowd investment, its order books are full. Streamlining the process of investment, the Germany-based start-up will cooperate with crowd investment platforms, Greenvesting and Ecoligo.

The plant, which consists of a 300 kW solar installation and a 1 MW storage system, was built by local power utility Cemig in partnership with Grupo Algar. The project is located in Uberlândia, in the state of Minas Gerais, which is the Brazilian region with the highest penetration of solar and renewables – and a grid that is in a urgent need of improvement.