After China’s National Day holiday, demand started picking up at a slow pace, but the anticipated installation rush did not occur as expected, due to land and financing issues, as well as the return of winter. These factors will also delay the timing of more than 6 GW of capacity to the first half of next year. PV InfoLink has thus downwardly revised its estimates for installed capacity in the fourth quarter to 11.3 GW in China and 30 GW globally, bringing this year’s global demand forecast to below 120 GW.

The EU is solarizing its digital economy at a fast pace. The factors behind this paradigm shift in energy – when renewable energy is projected comprise 90% of the electricity mix in Europe by 2040 – include technical, economic, environmental.

It was a record year for global shipments of single-axis solar photovoltaic (PV) trackers in 2018, as they increased by more than 40%, surpassing 20 GW globally for the first time, writes IHS Markit senior analyst Camron Barati. While the United States continued to be the largest individual market for single-axis trackers last year, shipments also increased in Mexico, Australia, Egypt, Spain, and other large utility-scale markets.

PV industry veteran Karl-Heinz Remmers recalls the trajectory of solar power this decade and predicts stronger than expected development for the ten years ahead.

The U.K. government was the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end its contribution to global warming by 2050. But to achieve this ambition is going to take some major changes – not least of which to the U.K.’s power network.

The African Development Bank is seeking consultants to explore how two hydropower projects and an associated grid planned in Burundi can incorporate solar power. The addition of photovoltaics is intended to reduce the country’s dependency on hydro, level out generation during dry and wet seasons and mitigate the effect of droughts.

With the market all but grinding to a halt this year after an incentive scheme expired, the government has launched a new capacity procurement system. PV could be a winner in the first auction round but, as of 2021, solar could face stiff competition from wind and biomass.

Having envisioned an 18-month transition to grid parity solar in the world’s biggest PV marketplace, developers of large scale projects are now reportedly being told the subsidy taps will be switched off at the end of December.

Two projects have been deployed by Canopy Power on private islands in Indonesia. The two 52.5 kW/77 kWh mini-grids were the only alternative to diesel generators due to the lack of a connection with the grid on the island of Batam. The projects – which rely on REC Solar modules, SMA inverters and a storage system from Tesvolt – provide around half of the energy required on their respective islands.

The German storage system provider intends to use its ‘Sonnen-Flat’ payment package to help customers benefit from the proceeds of its virtual power plant.

The Japanese chemical company has supplied panels for a PV system on the roof of a 7-Eleven store in Kanagawa prefecture.

The mature renewable energies are the most efficient power resources to slow down global warming and reduce human health impacts, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. The authors claim renewable energy generation capacity is also the best way to reduce land use, toxicity and drinking water depletion.

Ground-mounted PV systems promote biodiversity according to a new study published in Germany. Scientists collected data from 75 MW of solar plants nationwide and found the areas they were located in showed greater diversity and more intact habitat structures and found panels provide a refuge for animals.

In this year’s tender, which is open to PV and wind projects with a generation capacity of more than 1 MW, solar may have better prospects after securing only 1 MW in last year’s exercise. The Energy Regulatory Office also announced the auction for sub-1 MW projects will be held on December 10.

It is back to the meeting room for beleaguered shareholders in the debt-saddled solar project developer, ahead of a proposed shares purchase by a Chinese coal and real estate company.

Scientists at the University of Houston in the United States have developed a new catalyst which they say can efficiently produce hydrogen from seawater. The group says that its discovery significantly advances the development of seawater electrolysis for large-scale hydrogen production.

The Chinese thin-film manufacturer has achieved 25.11% efficiency with a full size silicon heterojunction cell, beating its own record. The efficiency record has been confirmed by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin.

A research group at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin has conducted an in depth analysis looking at the crystalline structure of methylammonium lead iodide, one of the most promising perovskite materials for solar cell production. The group made a series of discoveries which they hope will help to unlock some of the remaining issues in creating cells that are both stable and highly efficient.

Austrian researchers have proposed gravitational energy storage for locations with low demand. The scientists claim the system they are suggesting can be combined with other forms of storage as well as renewables, costs $50-100 per megawatt-hour of stored energy and $1-2 million per megawatt of installed capacity to develop.

Swedish company Exeger says the dye-sensitized ‘light-harvesting material’ it will produce at its facility will generate enough power to prevent the need to recharge portable electronic devices, lengthening battery lifespan perhaps indefinitely.

The proposed acquisition of a controlling stake in the heavily-indebted PV project business of solar manufacturer GCL-Poly has fallen through, with state-owned China Hua Neng now proposing to cherry-pick the more attractive assets from the unit’s 7 GW portfolio.

The Chinese company plans to roll out 2 GW of inverters per year from a facility which will have 1 GW production lines for both central and string products.

The government has unveiled a plan to help the PV industry reduce the cost of solar panels from around $0.23/W to $0.10/W by 2030. The plan also aims to reach module efficiencies of around 24% – up to 35% for multi-junction cells – by the end of the next decade.

The Shanghai solar manufacturer has revealed another set of record-breaking quarterly figures and says it will shift 18-20 GW of modules in 2020, en route to generating revenues of $1.17-1.23 billion.

GCL and Canadian Solar provide further proof of the solar boom that is gathering pace around the world even as attention focuses on the Chinese market.

The Turkish government is planning to assign 100 solar projects with a capacity of 10 MW each across 39 different provinces via a new procurement exercise. The tender will be held on April 20, 2020.

The energy transition is becoming ever more apparent among power companies, as was evident at the European Utility Week event last week in Paris, which showcased the hopes and fears of energy companies. Rebranding next year to ‘Enlit’, the organizers aim to reach the whole energy industry.

A cooperation agreement was signed by the French corporations to launch the HyGreen Provence project, which is expected to produce annually 1300 GWh of solar electricity and 10,440 tons of green hydrogen by 2027.

Australian startup Power Ledger wants to scale up its offerings for much larger communities, as it has already verified its technologies in projects around the world. The Australian Energy Market Commission last week proposed a similar agenda.

The Salt River Project has announced a 250 MW, 1,000 MWh battery project in Little Rainbow Valley, Arizona. The installation will be the largest in the state and among the largest in the United States.