The World Bank and Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) have installed five solar measurement stations across Vietnam, as part of a campaign to promote the deployment of renewable energy.

Last week at North America’s largest solar and storage trade show, Solar Power International, pv magazine hosted its third Future PV Roundtable. The event saw an engaging discussion of PV manufacturing and project development approaches, each with a unique approach to reducing solar’s LCOE.

Solar projects with a capacity above 1 MW will compete with wind projects in a 150 MW renewable energy auction to be held in Poland by the end of this year, according to local research institute IEO.

PanaHome, a unit of Panasonic, has revealed plans to connect 117 homes in western Japan to a solar-powered microgrid system, in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

The French government has announced that 310 projects were selected in the second 150 MW round of its 1.45 GW tender scheme for rooftop PV. The next round will be held in November.

Maoists attacked a 30 MW Tata Power Solar plant in Gaya, Bihar.

JAG International Energy has finished building a 15.4 MW solar array at a site roughly 185 km northwest of Tokyo.

The Philippines-based property development firm has agreed to invest P225 million ($4.4 million) to acquire a 15% interest in a 50 MW operational PV plant owned by Sepalco, a local corporation engaged in the solar power generation business.

Solar had the largest share in the final procurement round, with PV developers securing 382 of the 390 assigned feed-in tariff (FIT) contracts. Around 35% of the offered contracts are projects in indigenous communities.

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has introduced new regulations to stabilize the national grid as coal-fired plants are increasingly phased out and more solar and wind capacity is brought online.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Italy’s Politecnico di Milano have set a time limit for ultrafast perovskite solar cells and have quantified the speeds at which future solar cells would have to operate in order to increase efficiency.

Perovskite research sees an unexpected improvement, as a result of research from Saudi Arabia’s KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) solar centre, improving the quality and efficiency of the potential of solar panels.

Coated on both sides with an elastomer that ensures stretchability and stability in water, the new textile-compatible photovoltaics are able to maintain high efficiency of 7.9%.

Monocrystalline PV manufacturer LONGi Solar has reached record 22.43% conversion efficiency on a PERC cell based on mass production technology. The result is confirmed in a report from China’s National Center of Supervision and Inspection in Solar PV Product Quality (CPVT).

Project funded in part by EU and Norwegian government allows project to thrive using a smart mixture of solar power, salt water, irrigation and smart technologies.

Secretary of the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy Anand Kumar believes the country can confound doubts about its bold solar ambitions and smash its 175 GW of renewables by 2022 target.

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company, one of the world’s leading solar panel manufacturer, has announced its financial results for Q2 of 2017, which ended June 30, 2017.

The EU has published its decision to review the undertaking and the minimum import price (MIP) for crystalline PV products from China. As was proposed in July, the MIP will now be reduced quarterly beginning in October. For some Chinese manufacturers, the MIP, as well as a variable duty, is to be applied in future.

According to the latest statistics from the German Engineering Federation or VDMA (Verbandes Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau), PV equipment providers in Germany are benefiting primarily from investments in Asia. The demand for thin-film technology contributed to the growth in sales in the second quarter, although order intake dropped during the period.

The two production facilities will be located in the northern province of Mendoza and will provide the modules for PV projects developed under the Renovar program.

SIMEC Energy, a unit of India’s GFG Alliance, has acquired a majority stake in Adelaide-based PV and battery storage installer ZEN Energy, as part of a broader strategic partnership.

APA Group has secured approval to build between 150 MW and 240 MW of solar capacity in the Australian state of Queensland, with the potential to add up to 100 MW of battery storage.

In a bid to exploit their Solar PV potential, R&D centres at Centrica have developed a battery capable of storing energy for use to boost solar capabilities of council over energy distribution.

The British electrical power generation company has publicized intention to build a 200 MW battery storage project at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire – one of Europe’s largest coal-fired power plants.

The executive director of the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) Rahul Walawalkar, talks to pv magazine about India’s vast energy storage potential ahead of next week’s World Energy Storage Day.