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.

With market penetration exceeding expectations in 2018, bifacial technology is set to account for one third of global solar module production by 2022, writes Edurne Zoco, Research Director at IHS Markit. Bifacial and half-cell technologies are rapidly gaining momentum due to their improvements in power output, along with their low implementation barriers and minimal capex requirements

An historic new report from Energy Watch shows that we can reach 100% renewable energy in just a few decades, and it’s affordable; making this the clear answer to tackling climate change.

More than 1.3 GWp of floating solar capacity has already been built throughout the world, according to a new report, with the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore reaffirming its belief that the global potential for floating PV is in the terawatt range.

The two documents urge member countries to adopt more favorable legislative frameworks to help improve operation of renewables and distributed generation in relation to other energy networks of gas or heat. The new provisions are also expected to facilitate the development of energy communities and aggregators, while opening the market for flexibility services to small power producers.

Hevel Group has started building 100 MW of solar in northern Kazakhstan. The project, which the Russian PV group claims will be one of the largest solar plants in the Commonwealth of Independent States, is part of its 178 MW pipeline in the Central Asian country.

Overall, 64 companies have expressed interest in building the next 900 MW phase of the huge Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The first section of this part of the park is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2021.

Pope Francis held a closed door meeting at the Academy of Sciences with the CEOs of oil firms and investment firms to address climate change, with a group committing to support an “economically meaningful” carbon price.

The G20 meeting of environment and energy ministers on the weekend in Karuizawa, Japan, came out largely in favor of adopting lower-emission energy technologies. That means cleaner coal, as well as the development of solar- and wind-powered green hydrogen.

The Chinese manufacturer has supplied 258 MW of monocrystalline PERC double glass modules to Trung Nam Group. It claims the project is one of the biggest solar-wind installations in the Southeast Asian country.

A 4.8 MW solar park, which is being built by Danish developer Better Energy, will cover 20% of total power demand of a new hospital complex in Odense. The energy produced by the plant will be 100% self-consumed.

Only eight of the 93 companies which acquired the technical specifications for the tender have decided to participate in the procurement exercise. Collectively, the submitted project proposals had a combined capacity of 90 MW. Domestic content rules required the use of solar modules assembled in Algeria, as well as locally manufactured mounting structures and cables.

The Trump administration is acknowledging global demand for clean energy and energy storage with the US State Department’s new strategy.

Light-induced initial degradation in PERC modules is currently a subject of intense discussion, but tests at PI Berlin have shown that the problem is solvable. Founder and CEO Paul Grunow explains the effects, the approach, and the results.

German power distributor Energy2market intends to develop its international activity under its new French owner. The founding shareholders and Trailstone UK will sell their stock to EDF subsidiary Pulse Croissance.

The nation’s renewable energy legislation will be updated to expand net metering for projects connected to the medium voltage grid, paving the way for a wave of decentralized installations.

The Chinese PV manufacturer uses TOPCon half cells for the modules. The additional rear side yield is estimated by Trina at 5-30%.

An energy finance consultant from the international thinktank has added his voice to demands Theresa May, or her successor, spell out exactly how the decarbonization target will be met, and cited failings on solar as a warning on how not to proceed.

A research team from Russia’s institutes NUST MISIS and IPCE RAS, and Italy’s University of Rome Tor Vergata, have applied an additional layer of p-type copper iodide semiconductor between perovskite and the hole-transport NiO layer of the cell. According to the scientists, this inorganic material is more accessible and easy-to-use.

The Norwegian manufacturer has delayed full shutdown of its U.S. polysilicon operation until mid July as President Trump and his Chinese counterpart are scheduled to hold talks in Osaka in two weeks’ time.

It is not just the big beasts of Chinese solar that are investing in aggressive expansion as high-efficiency wafer maker NorSun and tracker supplier GameChange Solar make big announcements. The New York company, however, may fall foul of President Trump’s America First trade mantra by opening production lines in the Far East.

Initially, the company will construct a 16 GWh factory plus a joint venture fab with Volkswagen in Germany, which will also have a throughput of 16 GWh. Both factories could be extended to tap further into the large market for battery cells in Europe.

Federal trade authorities have ruled that bifacial solar modules are no longer subject to the Section 201 ruling, which currently apply a 25% tariff to most solar modules imported to the United States.

Representatives of the UK solar industry have praised prime minister Theresa May’s plan to amend the 2008 Climate Change Act with a 2050 net zero emissions target while urging the government to articulate how it will achieve its goal. In particular, the industry has pointed to the need to eliminate barriers that continue to hinder deployment of solar and battery storage systems.

A report on the prospects for a mooted $2.6tn electric vehicle market over the next decade says PHEVs – part electric, part gas-guzzling – are already losing market share rapidly to pure electric rivals, and will be extinct by 2030.

The government is considering financial incentives such as import and export duty waivers to woo battery manufacturers to set up a globally competitive manufacturing base in India.

The launch of the U.K. Smart Export Guarantee regime today failed to include a price floor – as predicted by trade body the STA – but the government did not rule out future intervention. Commercial customers, however, still have no way of securing payment for their excess power.

Hello hydrogen! A number of factors are floating renewably powered hydrogen to the top of the agenda for worldwide energy ministers. Australia is among the countries most favourably placed to turn hydrogen hype into the biggest source of decarbonized energy the world has yet seen.