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.

There was incredulity in some quarters as the federal government raised its renewables ambition another 22%, but the stellar performance of the past four years points to the new target being a realizable one.

Enerray talks to pv magazine about why it has set its sights on the MENAT region. In addition to the many challenges its nascent solar industry presents, there are a host of opportunities ripe for the picking.

Solar PV capacity is set to grow 17-fold, and wind six-fold, by 2050, to account for nearly half of global electricity generation, predicts BNEF, while investments will reach US$11.5 trillion. Cost reductions will drive this charge, particularly in the battery market, which will benefit from the EV manufacturing ramp up. Despite this, the electricity sector is still failing to bring CO₂ emissions down to the required levels, with its continued dependence on gas.

The inverter manufacturer alleges that its patented DC optimized inverter technology has been infringed on in the German market. It adds that Huawei’s residential inverters use an architecture, which violates its patents. Huawei has said it is “evaluating the claims”, however it does not believe it has infringed any valid patent rights.

Global newly installed capacity for 2018 is forecast to reach 102.6 GW, of which “only” 39 GW are expected to come from China. Fourteen countries are expected to cross the GW threshold this year.

Lightsource BP has announced the completion of its first solar project in India. The 60 MWp solar farm is located in Wagdari, Maharashtra.

The Guañizuil II A project was selected by Argentina’s government under phase two of the third round (Ronda 2) of the country’s renewable energy program, Renovar.

Greece-based Metka has signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the development of the 300 MW Talasol solar PV farm, in Spain.

German-based Innogy SE’s US subsidiary will gain exclusive rights for the acquisition of 13 solar PV projects currently owned by Birdseye Renewable Energy LLC. The projects have a cumulative capacity of 440MW and are at various stages of development.

Under the new scheme, set to come into force in 2020, homeowners and small businesses investing in solar and other renewables can expect a payback period of around seven years. They will also be exempt from paying energy taxes and the ODE (Opslag Duurzame Energie), a levy on power consumers that finances the country’s renewable energy programs, for self-consumed electricity,

The planned cell is to be based on the so-called norbornadiene-quadricyclane storage system.

Researchers from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and Oxford PV have presented a new record perovskite tandem solar cell, with a 25.2% conversion efficiency, independently verified by Fraunhofer ISE. Bernd Stannowski, from HZB presented the results this week at the World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-7) in Hawaii.

Citing the need for ancillary grid services, due to increasing amounts of variable renewable energy assets being installed in the U.K., the two comapnies are stressing the stability this project will bring to the country’s grid.

Australia is set to quadruple its utility-scale PV capacity with 2 GW pipeline. The effects are now beginning to show. So far just 0.1 MW are fully operational, but by July this is going to change.

A new study from University of California, Riverside, uses electric dipoles to accelerate electron in one direction, whilst completely stopping it in the other. The discovery, according to researchers, could lead to improvements in solar cell and other energy conversion technologies.

Waaree Energies has set up a 1 GW solar PV panel plant in Vapi, which is in addition to its existing 500 MW plant in Surat, Gujarat. The company intends to further increase capacity to 2 GW. Among other key developments, it has partnered with third-party equipment suppliers to manufacture batteries.

India-based Central Electronics Limited (CEL) has invited an expression of interest (EoI) for the establishment of manufacturing facilities for the production of solar cells and crystalline silicon (c-si) modules (conventional/flexible) in India.

There is no official confirmation that a request for a review of the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures against Chinese solar PV manufacturers has been submitted in Brussels in early June, however there are several reasons to believe it has likely happened.

German PV production equipment manufacturers are recording a decline in incoming orders. Thin film technology, meanwhile, is seeing significant market share increases.

The Italian solar developer will provide inverters through its unit Elettronica Santerno.

The Japanese government is steadily working toward the release of the country’s fifth strategic energy plan, but it needs to work with the private sector more effectively to promote the deployment of solar over the coming decades, according to a new report. 

Indonesia has reached a milestone, having inaugurated its first three solar+storage mini-grids, thus enabling three remote villages to enjoy uninterrupted, off-grid access to electricity for the entire day.

Germany’s RCT Power will start manufacturing lithium-ion-phosphate battery storage modules in eastern China this week. The fully automated facility in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, has an initial annual production capacity of 18,000 units.

ABB, ElectraNet and ARENA are coming together to deliver a microgrid and large scale battery storage solution to South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula. The commercial-deployment phase of the Energy Storage for Commercial Renewable Integration (ESCRI) project will strengthen the Electranet transmission system in the area, and will deliver increased resilience in the event of interstate connector failure.

India’s PV sector is expanding at a serious pace, creating jobs and further securing energy supply for many businesses. Yet, sourcing battery cell technology at the current rate resulted in annual foreign exchange of $150 million creating deficits, that hopefully can be averted in the future.