Every year, the SNEC PV Power Expo marks a turning point in the direction of solar market trends, and 2021 was no exception. Corrine Lin, chief analyst at PV InfoLink, was at the show to soak up the latest trends at one of the first big events to go ahead since early 2020.

A gigafactory, as the name indicates, is a facility that aims to produce Li-ion cells at a gigawatt-hours scale of total capacity, so they can then be used in electric vehicles or stationary storage applications. The global production capacity of Li-ion cells is expected to reach 740 GWh by the end of 2021 – almost a threefold increase from 2017 – and Europe will account for 8% of the total. João Coelho, an analyst at Delta-EE, looks at how Europe plans to catch up.

PV markets in Southeast Asia have picked up over the past two years, driven by the astounding growth of Vietnam. Regional policies, combined with growing demand for renewable power in the manufacturing industry, will result in 27 GW of new PV installations across the region over the next five years, writes IHS Markit analyst Dharmendra Kumar. PV installations in these countries are driven by attractive feed-in tariffs, net energy metering, tariff-based auction mechanisms, and other incentives.

The Middle East, and the Gulf in particular, has been home to record low solar tariffs in recent years. Major projects are being awarded via tenders, with prices gradually closing in on a remarkable 1 USDct/kWh. Of course, this is no coincidence due to the region’s favorable solar conditions: availability of cheap and sunny desert land, low labor costs, cheap project financing, supportive tax regimes, large projects benefitting from economies of scale, well designed tender structures, and decreasing PV component prices.

The speed of all transitions is inherently underestimated, and solar PV is no exception. The EU has grossly underestimated its coming of age, as its forecasts for 2020 were off by 67% for the Netherlands and 74% for Germany, writes Rolf Heynen, CEO of Dutch New Energy Research.

The head of the nation’s Smart Energy Council told an event organized by the Global Solar Council, that landmark could be achieved even amid Covid-19 restrictions.

The investment has been planned as part of the nation’s recovery and resilience plan to access EU funds for its post-Covid economic stimulus package. The spending plans of Portugal and Greece have also been approved by the European Commission in the last 48 hours.

Energy efficiency, electrification of heating and transport, and the provision of clean cooking facilities are all going in the wrong direction as the Covid crisis deprived millions in sub-Saharan Africa of electricity use, according to a report by the IEA, IRENA, WHO, World Bank and UN Statistics Division.

The trade show will be held from October 5-7 under the auspices of the Covid-delayed global trade fair.

The 15th edition of the world’s biggest solar exhibition got up and running in Shanghai today and we have exclusive images from the event.

The latest update to the Photovoltaics Report produced by research organization the Fraunhofer ISE has offered up the usual slew of interesting stats on the state of solar across the continent.

JinkoSolar did not infringe a patent asserted by Hanwha Q CELLS according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which affirmed an International Trade Commission finding from 2020.

The TotalEnergies-controlled solar manufacturer will secure an, as yet undetermined chunk of a new €118.6 million low-carbon innovation fund to start producing its frameless, glass-free solar roofing products at Porcelette, in northeastern France.

The developer secured a ten-year power purchase agreement from Statkraft in June last year for almost all of the power expected to be generated by the unsubsidized plant in southwestern Spain.

Canadian Solar has banked the cash for its growing portfolio of solar projects in a nation which had module demand of 5 GW last year.

Polluting energy sources received more than $3 trillion from the EU and 19 of the world’s largest national economies over that four-year period, despite G20 members having pledged to phase-out fossil fuel subsidy and address climate change back in 2009.

According to a new report, India’s commercial and industrial sectors will increase their rooftop solar deployments by 47% year-on-year, with bifacials and large-size high-wattage modules offering cost-effective support for reducing electricity costs.

…but cell manufacturer Aikosolar is expecting a reversal in fortune for the first half of the year and has blamed rising solar panel material costs.

U.S.-owned, Nairobi-based mini-grid developer PowerGen has already rolled out seven local solar networks in the West African country, funded by equity investors who will recoup their cash when all 28 systems are sold to CrossBoundary Energy Access.

Potential price rises of 14% for the solar home systems that are driving access to electricity in the world’s under-served regions could signal further arrested progress towards the UN goal of universal access by 2030.

Professor Thomas Nann told pv magazine Australia that a breakthrough idea was almost too simple: “Actually when we submitted the patent in the first place, the patent officers came back to us and said ‘well, that’s too trivial’ and we made exactly that argument – why did no one else do that then?” said Nann.

With Australia prepping plans for vast green hydrogen and ammonia production facilities, two of the country’s state governments are trying to drum up the end-user market as agreements are signed to drive use of the gas in Ukraine and Poland.

Utility DEWA is leveraging space technology to improve forecasting as the nation continues to develop its gargantuan solar park in Saih Al-Dahal, 50km south of Dubai.

New tech which can store power for longer than four hours can secure up to €14 million each towards their demonstrator project costs.

From pv magazine India. Hitachi ABB Power Grids in India today announced it has successfully commissioned one of India’s longest ultra-high voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission links for Power Grid Corporation of India Limited.  The ±800 kV, 6GW link can meet the electricity needs of more than 80 million people. It stretches 1,800-kilometers to connect […]

The Indian-based PV module maker supplied mono PERC solar PV modules for a 250 MW project stage for a large Californian project, the 2.7GW Westlands Solar Park, located south of Fresno in California.

Meyer Burger claims machines to produce perovskite tandem solar cells are still missing at Oxford PV’s manufacturing plant in Germany’s Brandenburg an der Havel. Despite this, Oxford PV terminated the cooperation with the turnkey machine supplier in a surprise move last week. The Swiss technology group, which now produces its own heterojunction solar cells and modules in Germany, is now considering legal action.

Perovskite tandem developer Oxford PV has completed the fit out of its 100 MW tandem cell line in Brandenburg, Germany – although the company awaits for the delivery of one perovskite deposition tool, which would complete the high efficiency cell process. Oxford PV, which in December 2020 hit a new world record cell efficiency of 29.52%, hopes to begin commercial production in early 2022.

According to the China Nonferrous Metals Association, polysilicon prices declined by around 1.4% last week. In other news, Gaoce announced another 20 GW PV wafer factory and Hareon Solar filed for bankruptcy.

NREL researchers have developed interoperable SCADA protocols for PV inverters. Two new sets of codes were conceived to enable legacy inverters, which are inverters that are not capable of providing some or all of the grid support functions to participate in advanced distribution management.

Known as Australia’s “Sunshine State,” Queensland households have, in just two years, doubled their residential energy storage, according to a new survey. The figures reveal 37% of Queensland households now have panels installed, with a further 22% looking to install or upgrade their systems.

Made up of distributed residential energy storage, these “plants” stabilize the grid and often end the need for new fossil generation. Tesla customers in California are the latest to join the movement.

U.S.-based Hyzon Motors has developed a new onboard hydrogen storage system technology capable of reducing the weight and manufacturing cost of commercial vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Meanwhile, India’s largest oil provider has announced its first green hydrogen project and the Dutch government has awarded a subsidy contract to an offshore green hydrogen demonstrator.

Australia’s first lithium-ion battery manufacturer, Energy Renaissance, has received a grant to develop its pilot manufacturing facility in the Hunter region.

Two Italian experts on heat pumps and PV systems recently spoke to pv magazine about economies of scale, the European market, and the maturity of heating tech. The Eurac researchers said currently available heat pumps can run at -20 C and efficiently provide hot water up to 65 C.