Almost half a billion people are served by the off-grid solar industry, and a growing number of these via Pay-as-you-go (PAYGo) asset financing. For many consumers, not only is the solar product their first access to modern energy but it may also be their first access to finance. The impact of this can be huge – the 60 Decibels Energy Benchmark reveals that 92% of consumers report an improvement in quality of life after purchasing their off-grid solar (OGS) product. On the other hand, consumers of OGS are exposed to product, service, and financial risk that companies must mitigate and balance with sustainable growth objectives. 

The Covid-19 pandemic and resulting economic fallout have had a variety of impacts on the clean energy transition, with some sectors being more affected than others. Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned of slowed progress towards sustainable energy goals due to Covid-19 and reversed progress in many areas crucial in reaching net zero, such as energy efficiency, clean cooking, or access to electricity. There is one sector, however, that has shown remarkable resilience since the beginning of the pandemic and has been able to maintain, and even accelerate, its rapid growth since 2020: green energy infrastructure.

The world’s energy sector is concentrated in solar, wind, electricity transmission/distribution and hydroelectric power. For example, investment in solar power plants alone is higher than investment in natural gas, coal-fired and nuclear power plants combined. This is encouraging, but another fact is worrying: China’s exports of solar modules to Europe in the first four months of 2022 were 2.5 times higher compared to 2021. In April alone, nearly 8 GW of solar modules worth more than €2 billion were imported from China into Europe.

The war in Ukraine continues to disrupt the global energy sector and, combined with the recent heatwaves affecting Europe, the need to restructure economies is starker than ever. Luckily, there are some countries that have kept working on their energy transition reforms and taking tangible actions towards tackling climate change. Uzbekistan is one of them.

High temperatures can affect different components of PV systems. Inverters can fail, the efficiency of solar modules can decline, and existing cell damage can become worse. However, investors, planners, and operators can adjust to heat waves in a number of different ways.

It should come as no surprise that clean energy spending is a big chunk of Warsaw’s four-year EU grant and loans package, given that the nation’s grid-connected solar capacity rose from 3.99 GW at the end of 2020 to 6.3 GW four months ago, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

The clean power numbers published annually by the International Renewable Energy Agency provide a snapshot of the global solar market and, this year, a lot of figures were unchanged from the previous dataset, especially in the off-grid segment.

Covid-19 has left Shunfeng International’s accountants unable to publish its official 2021 numbers on time, but its estimated figures announced a net current liability of almost $155 million and a “capital deficiency” of near $140 million.

Polysilicon maker Xinte is forging ahead with a huge expansion strategy just as solar developers at the opposite end of the industry continue to bleed cash.

Lack of locally-denominated finance, and of sufficiently long-term loans, are well established hurdles to the development of photovoltaics in Africa.

Clean Energy Associates says solar wafer pricing will fall by 23% by the end of 2023, while BloombergNEF sees 500 GW of manufacturing capacity online by the end of next year.

First Solar has announced plans to invest in a new 3.5 GW manufacturing facility in the southeastern United States, on top of a $185 million upgrade for its Ohio plant.

JinkoSolar has predicted that polysilicon prices will peak before the end of September, while Risen, GoodWe, TBEA, and Ginlong have all reported strong first-half increases in revenue.

Dutch energy suppliers are arbitrarily setting net-metering tariffs for solar installations by taking advantage of a legal vacuum. However, Dutch PV analyst Peter Segaar says that current tariffs remain attractive.

Japanese startup Yumes Frontier has developed a 2.7 kW micro-hydropower system that can be used in some buildings. It can also be combined with solar to provide power for lights and surveillance cameras.

An appeal has been launched to source off-grid power generation equipment for Ukraine, with companies and individuals able to donate hardware or cash.

Enphase is now waiting for final approval from the EU authorities and expects to finalize its plans to buy GreenCom Networks in the fourth quarter.

Project Nexus expects to break ground on a canal-top solar project in the fall, with completion targeted by the end of 2023.

GAF Energy said its new production facility in Georgetown, Texas, will create hundreds of renewable energy jobs.

Researchers in Greece have developed three different transfer-learning strategies for solar power forecasting. The techniques are based on a stacked long short-term memory model, which is a kind of recurrent neural network that can learn order dependence in sequence prediction problems.

Egypt’s hydrogen strategy is taking shape ahead of COP27 through agreements with Globeleq, Actis, and Alfanar. Elsewhere in the world, the US authorities are investing in blue hydrogen, and the city of Hamburg, Germany, has signed three agreements with Chile, Uruguay and Buenos Aires.

Researchers have studied a perovskite solar panel array with little generation loss due to high temperatures, and better performance than expected.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a battery with two electrodes made of aluminum and sulfur, and a molten salt electrolyte placed between them. They said the sulfur electrodes with a high loading of 12.0 mg cm2 can sustain a high capacity of 520 mAh g–1 over 100 cycles at 5 C.

Aalborg CSP will connect a 2.5 MW ammonia heat pump to a district heating system operated by E.ON Denmark. The facility will be located at a local wastewater treatment plant.

Toshiba has developed a smart synchronous inverter that stabilizes power fluctuations in microgrids. The Japanese company said it has tested the device in combination with PV and battery storage.

Reliance Industries says that production will begin at its 10 GW factory for solar cells and modules by 2024. It plans to double the facility’s capacity to 20 GW by 2026 and is aiming for 50 GWh of annual cell-to-pack battery capacity by 2027.

The 25-meter-wide Airbus solar drone, which is remotely controlled by satellite, is entirely covered with PV modules.

Average polysilicon prices hit CNY 312 ($45.47)/kg this week, according to an industry association in China. The nation’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the National Energy Administration have also asked regional authorities to take action to deal with the price increase.

Trina Solar said TÜV Nord in Germany has confirmed the efficiency rating of its latest solar cell.

The new product features a power conversion efficiency of 22.0% and a temperature coefficient of -0.25% per C.

Renewable energy investors have proposed more than 40 new clean energy projects, or about 17 GW of capacity, for a coordinated “renewable energy zone” to be built in New South Wales, Australia.

JSW Energy, a private-sector power producer, will set up 1 GWh of standalone, grid-connected battery energy storage projects on a build-own-operate-transfer basis in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

Hydrostor has selected an engineering company to provide front-end studies for a 500 MW compressed air energy storage project in California.

US utility Xcel Energy will test the use of Ambri’s energy storage technology at the Solar Technology Acceleration Center.

Germany has launched the world’s first operational hydrogen trains and US researchers have presented a novel design for a tubular PEM fuel cell. ABB and Hydrogen Optimized, meanwhile, have expanded their strategic ties and Slovakia has moved forward with a major gas-blending pilot project.