We need to build solar parks only when there are no more square meters left on the rooftops, writes Mikhail Lifshitz, co-owner of Russia-based JSC Rotec.

In the third of a series of four blogs, solar pioneer Philip Wolfe lists the world’s largest solar power plants. In these articles, a ‘solar plant’ is defined as an individual generating station.

The cost effectiveness of solar energy is becoming a top priority in terms of the selection of end market products, writes EnergyTrend’s Lions Shih. The result? A more varied and diverse module landscape alongside mono’s continued rise.

This year’s Earth Overshoot Day falls on Friday, August 2. The current UN report on biodiversity protection does not report anything good. At least two reasons for our children to demonstrate on Fridays so that we not only talk, but act, says Ralf Schnitzler, project developer, solar parks, Bejulo GmbH. He believes that now is the time to take the energy revolution seriously. Below, he lays out his arguments and ideas on how the energy transition and other transformations could be possible with solar parks.

In the second of a series of four blogs, solar pioneer Philip Wolfe lists the world’s largest solar parks. In these articles, a ‘solar park’ is defined as a group of co-located solar power plants.

The 16.4 MW solar facility is located 14 km southwest of the New Ulaanbaatar International Airport. The project was developed by Sharp Corporation in partnership with Sermsang Power (SSP) and Tenuun Gerel Construction (TGC).

The Chinese state-owned infrastructure investment fund, which already has strong ties to the Saudi power company, will be a major shareholder in a Middle East and African clean energy portfolio that adds up to 1668 MW of generation capacity.

After earmarking €3 million last year and €4 million in 2017, the Italian region of Lombardy has decided to further support residential and commercial storage projects linked to renewables.

Using an application based on resource data and country-specific techno-economic inputs, a report has analyzed the costs of developing utility scale renewables in Southeast Asia and found abundant, cost-competitive potential.

Brazilian energy agency the EPE has pre-qualified 1,829 renewable power projects with a combined capacity of 100.8 GW for the procurement exercise. The A-6 auction is expected to be the largest in terms of allocated capacity and to deliver lower bids than previous rounds.

The scheme will be open to renewable energy systems not exceeding 500 kW in capacity. The Albanian government expects the program to enable the deployment of 200 MW of PV.

By adding 77 MW of solar generation capacity and 256 MW of wind assets the power company wants to become number two in the Italian wind sector and engage in a significant development of solar.

The project, in its preliminary development phase, should reach a total generation capacity of around 800 MW. The two solar parks that will make up the Castilla-La Mancha project would each have a 400 MW capacity.

The project is part of the utility’s plan to deploy large-scale floating PV installations at several hydroelectric dams it operates in Thailand.

The Chinese manufacturer revealed it had supplied the modules to one of the largest PV facilities in the APAC region outside its homeland.

Bifacial modules are here to stay. But even as manufacturers commit further capacities to two-sided module production spanning a whole range of technologies, there are still challenges to overcome, to fulfill predictions that bifacial will represent almost 40% of all modules produced inside the next decade. Flash testing conducted at the end of cell and module production presents one of these, and there is plenty of debate among equipment suppliers as to how this manufacturing stage should treat bifacial cells and modules.

Scientists working at Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in the lab of renowned PV scientist Michael Grätzel, have developed a new method for testing perovskite solar cells that they say combines the advantages of laboratory and outdoor testing and will contribute to the creation of industry standards for characterizing perovskite stability.

The Finnish company has commissioned a large scale storage project to reduce curtailment of wind and solar assets on Bonaire. The system will use machine-learning based energy management software to provide grid services and manage all of the island’s power generators.

Belgian research institute imec this week said it has set a performance record of 400 watt-hours per liter – at a charge rate of 0.5 – for a solid state lithium metal battery. The institute says it is working with the University of Hasselt to scale up production of solid state cells on a pilot line in Belgium.

The procurements relate to self-consumption projects with a generation capacity of 100 kW-1 MW. The next tender will be launched in September and will allocate 25 MW of solar capacity. The tenders had been suspended because of low interest and disproportionately high final tariffs for surplus power injected into the grid.

Analysts have observed rising demand amid rumors of stock shortages. Meanwhile, the price of mono cells fell further, although not far enough as far as the big beasts of the PERC module jungle are concerned.

The world’s number one mono silicon module manufacturer will add another 5 GW to its annual panel production capacity in 2020 as it pursues 16 GW of output this year and 25 GW next year.

In a chat with pv magazine, the managing director of GoodWe’s European unit, Thomas Haering, described the inverter manufacturer’s plans to expand capacity this year, after construction started on new factories in Suzhou and Guangde.

The Nasdaq-listed game developer will offer shares in return for a 9.9% stake in the Chinese mono solar manufacturer’s Kexin electric vehicle and storage business.

This year JinkoSolar launched its bifacial Swan module, one of the first to feature a transparent Tedlar backsheet made by DuPont. pv magazine had the chance to catch up with Gener Miao, JinkoSolar VP for global sales and marketing for an update on the module’s innovations, and on how the company sees solar markets this year.

The new government’s chief policy thinktank has suggested banning sales of non-electric two and three wheelers in 2025 and cars, trucks and buses five years later as well as forcing public fleets and the cars used by ride hailing apps to be electric.

Norwegian hydropower company Statkraft has revealed more details of its solar-storage-wind-gas network. Previously announced plans to potentially double capacity this summer were not mentioned in the update.

Swedish company Azelio is studying whether storage could ensure complete self-sufficiency for the 36,000-strong Azraq camp, which already draws 70% of its electricity from solar generation.

This year’s New Energy Outlook report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts renewables can keep us on track for less than two degrees of global heating for the next decade. But after that, other technologies will have to do their bit.

The world’s biggest solar market is on track for an unsubsidized future but policymakers continue to grapple with grid planning. A report by the German Energy Agency has offered suggestions on how China’s approach to grid design could be tweaked to ensure priority dispatch for PV while slashing administrative costs and reining in renewable energy losses.