2019

Ground-mounted PV systems promote biodiversity according to a new study published in Germany. Scientists collected data from 75 MW of solar plants nationwide and found the areas they were located in showed greater diversity and more intact habitat structures and found panels provide a refuge for animals.

After China’s National Day holiday, demand started picking up at a slow pace, but the anticipated installation rush did not occur as expected, due to land and financing issues, as well as the return of winter. These factors will also delay the timing of more than 6 GW of capacity to the first half of next year. PV InfoLink has thus downwardly revised its estimates for installed capacity in the fourth quarter to 11.3 GW in China and 30 GW globally, bringing this year’s global demand forecast to below 120 GW.

Dutch gas and power provider Essent has agreed to buy the Amsterdam-based renewables marketplace for an undisclosed sum. Vandebron sells electricity aggregated from wind, solar and biomass projects.

In this year’s tender, which is open to PV and wind projects with a generation capacity of more than 1 MW, solar may have better prospects after securing only 1 MW in last year’s exercise. The Energy Regulatory Office also announced the auction for sub-1 MW projects will be held on December 10.

It is back to the meeting room for beleaguered shareholders in the debt-saddled solar project developer, ahead of a proposed shares purchase by a Chinese coal and real estate company.

The Chinese thin-film manufacturer has achieved 25.11% efficiency with a full size silicon heterojunction cell, beating its own record. The efficiency record has been confirmed by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin.

The proposed acquisition of a controlling stake in the heavily-indebted PV project business of solar manufacturer GCL-Poly has fallen through, with state-owned China Hua Neng now proposing to cherry-pick the more attractive assets from the unit’s 7 GW portfolio.

Organizers of the Solar Power Mexico 2020 exhibition face a difficult task of replicating the success of the first edition of the event, which took place this year and had participation of 78 exhibitors and more than 5,000 visitors. Next year’s event will be held from March 24 to 26 at Centro Citibanamex in Mexico City.

A study of the after-effects of the energy transition has assessed 156 nations and ranked a surprising winner. Here, energy expert Indra Overland discusses the findings of the GeGaLo Index as part of our interview examining renewables and geopolitics.

The Chinese company plans to roll out 2 GW of inverters per year from a facility which will have 1 GW production lines for both central and string products.