On Dec. 10, European Internal Market and Environment Commissioners Thierry Breton and Virginijus Sinkevičius, in conjunction with Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, announced a keenly anticipated piece of legislation: the commission’s proposal for modernized EU battery rules. Pia Alina Lange – head of communications for Recharge, the European battery industry association – says that while there are potential pitfalls with the new regulation, it could pave the way to sustainable industry development.

The global residential energy storage market continued to grow in 2020, writes IHS Markit Analyst Michael Longson. Many suppliers were looking to build upon a strong first quarter when Covid-19 hit in March 2020 and slowed the market significantly. However, as a result of several funding packages being introduced and the gradual easing of local restrictions, shipments continued to grow throughout the second and third quarters, enabling strong year-on-year growth for the sector in 2020.

An overview of the state of solar across the continent by trade body the Africa Solar Industry Association has highlighted a patchy policy landscape where clean power ambitions are often not followed through.

Despite pandemic-induced impacts, the PV market was bigger than expected last year. In particular, an installation rush in Vietnam and China took place in December and pushed global demand upward. PV InfoLink estimates that global module demand in 2020 reached 140 GW. Analyst Mars Chang delves into the numbers.

Taking a renewable energy project into its operational phase calls for several workstreams to be synchronized. The one that perhaps jumps out the most is permitting processes: correctly navigating the intricate and time-sensitive steps for licenses and permits. Regardless, each workstream calls for a different set of skills, and because of interlinked chicken-or-egg causality, it is difficult to say which single element is most important in a project’s development. However, there is an unsung element of the financial closing which has as much, if not more, impact on a project’s profitability than the cost of debt does: the underlying terms and conditions.

The Amsterdam-based, Australia and central Europe-facing developer saw sales slump thanks to Covid-19 last year but has touted a growing operational project portfolio.

The national PV body in the country wants €1 billion from the EU’s recovery and resilience fund to be allocated to upgrading the electricity network to host more solar power generation capacity.

The kingdom has had a ban on new large scale clean energy projects since January 2019 as Covid-19 exacerbated a situation in which generation capacity already outstripped supply. Lifting that embargo, and re-starting renewables auctions would be a step in the right direction, according to IRENA.

The former need not necessarily relate to conventional lithium-ion batteries, however, as a recent webinar staged by Solarpower Europe and EU body GET.invest discovered.

The European Parliament and Council of Ministers continued to tidy up the details of the bloc’s Covid-recovery package today by publishing the rules of how the money will be disbursed.

According to JinkoSolar vice president Dany Qian, PV panel prices rose significantly since the second quarter of last year due to an increasing shortage of polysilicon, glass, silver, and module frames. She also stated that rushing demand cannot stop prices from rising for at least the next six months or longer, until sufficient capacity ramps up.

The facility is expected to be located in the state of Ceará and to be powered by around 3.6 GW of wind and solar facilities located in the region. The project developer is Australia-based Enegix Energy.

Altrex, a scaffolding and ladder producer in the Netherlands, has developed a new modular lift solution for solar panels. The system can raise one solar panel at a time and can be operated by a single installer using nothing other than a cordless drill, the company claims.

German scientists have improved the scribing method to interconnect perovskite PV cells, in order to then upscale them into mini PV modules. They established suitable laser fluence ranges for nanosecond and picosecond lasers and found that the former results in higher efficiency levels.

Chinese inverter maker Sungrow revealed a 350 MW solar facility was energized in Loc Ninh County, Binh Phuoc Province. The project secured a FiT of $0.0709 per kWh.

Canadian scientists have developed a way to improve the short-term models used to forecast the impact of snow on PV arrays. The parameters include the warming effect of irradiance on the backs of panels, thermal capacity, and irradiance through snow.

Ibereólica has submitted the project, set to be located in the Antofagasta region, to Chile’s environmental authorities for approval.

Spain’s Tranesol is setting up two energy communities that will be powered by 2.5 MW of agrivoltaics. The two facilities will be located in the Valencian Community, which is at the forefront for supporting projects for solar power sharing.

According to the analysts, the German photovoltaic market would grow by 23% this year, compared to 2020. Strong growth is expected to come from large scale projects.

The solar plant is planned to be built in southwestern Kosovo and to come online next year.

Scientists in Germany demonstrated a slot die coating process for large-scale production of perovskite thin-film solar cells that achieved a maximum efficiency of 20.83%. Using an additive, and experimenting to find the optimal concentration, the group demonstrated improved control over the crystallization process – crucial for developing stable, repeatable processing.

Scientists in the U.S. laid out the rationale behind new PV module testing specifications published last year, which aim to better take into account the role of temperature in various types of performance loss. They suggest a new ‘98th percentile’ approach to measuring module operating temperatures, which would offer system designers a better understanding of the module’s performance in a particular ‘micro-environment’.

A handful of companies are challenging Chinese control of a core material in lithium-ion battery production, before the electrification of transport truly kicks off the global battery boom. International Graphite, a Perth-based startup at the forefront of this effort, recently spoke to pv magazine Australia about the surprisingly collaborative race to feed global demand.

Edgehog secured the funds from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). The special glass is hydrophobic and is claimed to be able to reduce the accumulation of dust and residue, thus reducing the need for maintenance.

The Limburg section of the network could face congestion problems for a decade, according to transmission system operator Tennet, prompting talk of offering auction-determined incentives to clean-power generators to reduce their output.

Just as Australia thought its pioneering days were over, it has become the first country in the world to sell General Electric’s new solar inverters.

Since summer 2018, a 25% charge has been levied by the EU on steel-product import volumes in excess of historical norms. European manufacturers say there is still a global steelmaking glut and the U.S. is showing no signs of lifting its restrictions.

The poly maker is making significant investment pledges into new production lines in Sichuan and Inner Mongolia.

PV systems are unique among electronic devices, as they are expected to survive outdoors for at least 25 to 30 years. This makes module and system quality one of the cornerstones of guaranteed returns on investment. Potential-induced degradation (PID) is a critical failure mode with a potentially high financial impact. New research from imec and Hasselt University looks at the damaging impact that PID can have on bifacial technology, writes Michaël Daenen, a professor at EnergyVille and Hasselt University.

The thin-film module manufacturer achieved a turnover of $2.7 billion and a profit of $400 million last year. The company also revealed that it is evaluating further U.S. manufacturing expansion, “contingent on the right policy environment.”

A scoping study has found that Global Energy Ventures’ compressed hydrogen ship is technically feasible and ‘highly competitive’ to transport the hyped future fuel at distances that conveniently connect Australia to Asian markets.

According to the German manufacturer, the TS-I HV 80 can combine a wide variety of applications such as optimized self-consumption and intelligent peak load capping.

EDF and Oceanus plan to build a pumped hydro storage station and a desalination system powered by wind and solar. The system will use saltwater to produce hydropower during periods of high demand, while producing affordable freshwater.

Porous nanostructured microspheres made of copper, iron, and iron oxide were used by an international research team as negative anode material in lithium-ion batteries. The new technique is claimed to provide three times more capacity than batteries based on graphite anodes.

Sun Cable’s ambitious 13 GW Australia-ASEAN Power Link, which is designed to export solar electricity from Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore, continues to shine bright, with the Australian government including the mega-project on its Priority Initiative List.