Without globally unified standards in waste management, the risk from toxic materials such as lead will become increasingly important.

After several years of weak solar demand growth in Europe, compared to the historical highs of 2011, installations are expected to surge by 88% to reach a new installation record of 23 GW in 2019, writes Cormac Gilligan, research manager at IHS Markit. A range of favorable macro conditions have coalesced this year to reignite the market.

Back in June, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) granted Section 201 tariff exemptions to bifacial cells and modules, but reversed the decision on Oct. 28. Two weeks after the reversal, the U.S. Court of International Trade issued a temporary order against the withdrawal of the bifacial exemption. An investigation is now underway, with the first hearing taking place on Dec. 5.

By the end of 2018, China was home to around one third of global cumulative PV capacity, with around 175 GW of operational PV systems. In the context of China’s power sector, writes Frank Haugwitz of Asia Europe Clean Energy Advisory, the cumulative installed capacity makes up 9% of the total existing power generation capacity and contributed approximately 2.7% to total electricity generation.

With its trade wars, exclusions from tariffs, reversals of exclusions, and stays of reversals of exclusions – in addition to the repeal of the Clean Air Act and potential changes to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act – the U.S. solar market is anything but boring, writes SPV Market Research’s Paula Mints.

The raised renewable energy ambition has been dismissed by the domestic solar association, which accuses president Miloš Zeman of wanting to destroy the Czech PV sector. In 2019, the country added only 7 MW of new PV installations.

An insider at the China Photovoltaic Industry Association has told pv magazine there was an end-of-year rally after less than 18 GW of new capacity was installed to the end of November.

The Chinese government will extend duties on U.S. and South Korean polysilicon for another five years from today despite committing to buy $200 billion more American goods and services in the trade deal signed on Wednesday. Poly manufacturer REC Silicon says it expects polysilicon to form part of that trade agreement.

A study from Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology has predicted solar and other renewables can provide a global energy jobs revolution – just as four European operations revealed recent struggles.

European satellite operator Eutelsat has revealed one of the two solar arrays on its recently launched 5 West B satellite has been lost. Only 45% of the craft’s generation capacity can be operated, hitting the company’s bottom line to the tune of $5-10 million.

The resulting project will sell power to Qatar General Electricity and Water Corp under a 25-year power supply deal. French oil and gas giant Total and Japanese conglomerate Marubeni will hold a combined 40% stake in the power plant, which will be built near Doha, the Qatari capital.

The solar facility, near Lyon, will be developed by Engie unit Compagnie Nationale du Rhône. Tests will be carried out for three years at a project intended to demonstrate the benefits of combining solar with agriculture.

The nation deployed around 923 MW of new solar last year. Around 350 MW came in the form of unlicensed projects given an extension to their grid-connection deadlines.

Renewables authority official tells pv magazine the nation’s irrigation canals could host almost 1 GW of solar generation capacity.

The minister of environment and energy transition has told parliament two auctions for large scale solar will be held this year, with a new procurement round now planned. The minister revealed energy storage may play a part in the capacity tenders.

The Chinese manufacturer said the result was confirmed by Germany’s TÜV Rheinland. The achievement beats the company’s previous record of 21.65%, set last month.

Researchers from the City University of Hong Kong have developed an all-inorganic perovskite cell with an electron-pair donor which offers a pair of non-bonding electrons. The cell was developed by applying that ‘Lewis base’ small molecule to passivate the inorganic perovskite film.

The Chinese manufacturer has achieved conversion efficiencies of 21.82% and 22.49% for its p-type PERC and n-type HOT bifacial panels, respectively. The results were confirmed by Germany’s TÜV Rheinland.

The energy ministry has published a plan to radically simplify the renewable energy permitting process. The new system is expected to come into force as early as next month and will be applied retroactively to address a 22-month backlog in generation license applications.

Fire safety engineering researchers have demonstrated increasing the gap between the modules of commercial PV arrays and flat roof surfaces is a decisive factor in reducing fire risks. Experiments have identified a critical gap height below which flame spread rate increases significantly.

Lobby group CEO Walburga Hemetsberger says the plans announced by commission president Ursula von der Leyen this week should place the European solar industry front and center.

The Chinese manufacturer had to ship a lot more ingots, wafers, cells and modules to secure a modest rise in returns, according to its unaudited 2019 figures.

The German PV equipment provider has agreed to supply manufacturing equipment for CIGS thin-film solar panels to the CNBM Bengbu Design and Research Institute for Glass Industry, a subsidiary of cement producer China National Building Material.

The share of renewables in the global energy mix must more than double by 2030 for the world to advance the energy transition and achieve sustainable development goals, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Renewable electricity should supply 57% of global power by the end of the decade, up from 26% today.

As it moves towards grid connection this month, the solar project in the south of Oman demonstrates the value proposition of n-type PV cell technology, Chinese solar manufacturer Jolywood has argued at the World Future Energy Summit. The project is said to be the largest n-type bifacial array in the world.

Solar deployment continued to pick up in the Middle East and North Africa in 2019, the Middle East Solar Industry Association has said in its annual report.

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development will support half a dozen megawatt scale projects featuring solar in the Caribbean and Africa. In addition to around 42.5 MW of new solar capacity, the fund will also back the development of energy storage, waste-to-energy and biogas facilities.

A Department of Energy agency expects 17.4 GW (DC) of utility scale solar power generation capacity plus 6.6 GW of small scale PV will be installed in 2020. That volume would be 60% higher than the record, set in 2016.

The company will provide two 50 MW systems for investor the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund and project developer Low Carbon. The projects will be completed by the first quarter of 2021.

An international research group led by CIC EnergiGUNE, a Spanish research center, is designing new redox organic flow batteries. The researchers claim the batteries will offer longer duration, as well as higher power and energy densities, in a more environmentally sustainable format. The European Commission provided €3.8 million in funding for the initiative.