With the release of second quarter financial results, the rankings of global module shipments in the first half of the year can be confirmed. JinkoSolar shipped 4.8 GW to take first place in this period.

By 2025, Taiwan aims to reach a cumulative installed solar PV capacity of 20 GW. However, by mid-2018, just 11.2% of this goal had been met. TrendForce analyst, Rhea Tsao, examines the situation and discusses what needs to be done to reach the target.

Module degradation tests are essential not only for effective plant operations, but also to ensure an optimum ROI. However, fixed laboratories, where such tests are usually carried out, involve transportation issues, while it is not always economically feasible to send in mobile laboratories. So how can degradation in these instances be measured? Leonardo Enrique Pérez Abreu, Technical Manager of the Testing & Optimization department at Enertis discusses this issue.

World Overshoot Day marks the day the world has used up its annual budget of the resources it could have sustainably consumed. Despite efforts in relevant sectors, the date is creeping forward every year. Twenty years ago, it was in late September.

India is currently the second largest market in the world for PV module demand. With China’s domestic demand frozen since the 31/5 notification, the country’s total module demand in 2018 will likely only achieve 32-34 GW. This will allow India, which may surpass 10 GW in annual demand, to reach 13% of global PV demand this year. As a result, the future of India’s trade war has become an influential factor in the global PV industry.

The tipping point, where the world shifts from oil and gas to renewables, will be the year 2035, says Wood Mackenzie. This is when renewables and electric-based technologies converge, with around 20% of global power needs being met by solar or wind, and roughly 20% of miles traveled by cars, trucks, buses and bikes using electricity. Will the transition come soon enough, however?

India is likely to add between 8-8.5 GW of renewable energy generation capacity in the current financial year ending March 2019, according to research and rating agency ICRA Limited.

Solar PV and wind energy are now evolving from established to the preferred energy sources, according to a recent Deloitte study analyzing the global renewable energy market.

Polish research institute IEO released a new analysis showing increasing power prices in the Eastern European country, due to the current energy policy, which still strongly relies on coal power. Replacing coal with solar power, it argues, would likely result in decreasing power prices.

Jamaica is currently targeting a 30% share of renewables in its energy mix by 2030. However, the nation’s prime minister says, “We can do better.”

After addressing grid connection challenges, the French energy giant has launched construction on the 256.5 MW Kiamal Solar Farm. It is now looking to add a second stage of up to 194 MW, and is exploring commercial options for the approved 380 MWh of energy storage.

An investigation by mainland China regulators has found that subsidy payment delays in the northwest region of Ningxia are putting PV projects at risk of bankruptcy.

Electrifying the global energy system with clean energy is the only way to reach the targets set by the Paris agreement on climate change and avoid the catastrophic scenarios outlined by the recent IPCC report. In an interview with pv magazine, Christian Breyer – Professor of Solar Economy at Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology – explains a 100% renewables model is not only technically feasible, but also the cheapest and safest option. With solar and storage at its core, the future energy system envisaged by Breyer and his team will not only stop coal, but also nuclear and fossil gas, while seeing solar reach a share of around 70% of power consumption by 2050. By that time, PV technology could cost a third of its current price.

The eastern European nation is being assisted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with the creation of tender documentation for renewable energy auctions.

The nation’s oil and gas provider is building its first small-sized PV projects at facilities operated by Ukrtransgaz, the Ukrainian gas transport system.

A Japanese research team claims to have tailored an electron-accepting unit, which has been successfully used in an organic semiconductor applied in a solar cell device that showed high PV performance.

The Munich-based company will receive up to €2 million for a large-scale storage facility in southern Germany. The system will consist of 52 lithium-ion car batteries –which are also used in the BMW i3 – and will be coupled with a wind farm.

The farming sector alone offers a potential $40bn marketplace, thanks to rice transplanting, pesticide spraying and grain harvesting – says the Council on Energy, Environment and Water thinktank.

Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have found what they describe conclusive evidence that perovskites feature “efficient carrier multiplication,” effectively increasing the single layer efficiency limit from 33% to 44%.

For renewables to claim a more sizable share of the global energy mix, the adoption of energy storage would need to pick up pace and the rapidly increasing size of the EV fleet will offer a scalable way to ramp up such access, says Fitch Solutions.

Tesla is planning accelerated development and construction of this new battery and EV plant, which will mark the company’s first soirée into international production.

Toshiba Corporation has announced it will invest JPY 16.2 billion (around US$144 million) in a second Japanese manufacturing facility for its SCiB rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.

Analysts at Taiwan-based EnergyTrend and China’s PV Infolink have reported a further increase in demand for monocrystalline solar cells and modules in recent days. Their respective analyses on multi-crystalline products, however, do not match.

The CIS thin film solar module maker was taken over, together with its parent company Japan’s oil and gas group, Showa Shell Sekiyu, by Japanese oil refiner Idemitsu.

TSEC is planning to cut a fifth of its workforce as it changes focus to produce higher-efficiency PERC cells, against a backdrop of more generic products swamping the market because of a slowdown in the world’s biggest market.

The project, under development by Gasunie, Tennet and Thyssengas, will convert wind power into green hydrogen. The plant commissioning should take place gradually starting from 2022.

Lithium Werks has ambitious plans for a global chain of utility-scale production lines that has secured the backing of the Netherlands government and PM Mark Rutte, as EU leaders contemplate a post-US trade future.

Mercedes Benz execs join Eguana Technologies to help drive Calgary-based business’ global expansion plans.

According to a UC Berkeley study, the falling costs of storage technologies will make it possible for Sub-Saharan countries to rely on decentralized systems based mainly on solar-plus-storage, bringing access to electricity to more than 600 million people.

Lead, sulphuric-acid, nickel, cobalt and rare earth metals are highly toxic and have adverse impacts on the environment and the societies in which they are mined. As the EU is looking to become a world leader in battery production, a report considers new battery technologies – such as sodium-ion – which would have less negative impacts.