2020

The German PV equipment provider has agreed to supply manufacturing equipment for CIGS thin-film solar panels to the CNBM Bengbu Design and Research Institute for Glass Industry, a subsidiary of cement producer China National Building Material.

Panda Green today said delays acquiring the necessary approvals were responsible for holding up its critical HK$1.79 billion lifeline but the deadline for completion had originally been put back to coincide with publication of the results of a debt restructuring proposal which ultimately tempted less than a third of note holders.

The share of renewables in the global energy mix must more than double by 2030 for the world to advance the energy transition and achieve sustainable development goals, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Renewable electricity should supply 57% of global power by the end of the decade, up from 26% today.

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development will support half a dozen megawatt scale projects featuring solar in the Caribbean and Africa. In addition to around 42.5 MW of new solar capacity, the fund will also back the development of energy storage, waste-to-energy and biogas facilities.

Fire safety engineering researchers have demonstrated increasing the gap between the modules of commercial PV arrays and flat roof surfaces is a decisive factor in reducing fire risks. Experiments have identified a critical gap height below which flame spread rate increases significantly.

Lobby group CEO Walburga Hemetsberger says the plans announced by commission president Ursula von der Leyen this week should place the European solar industry front and center.

The U.S. asset management fund’s plan to cut future investment in coal is reportedly part of a climate-focused initiative to establish sustainability at the center of its business approach. The announcement comes weeks after the investor closed $1 billion of a record $2.5 billion fund focused on PV, wind and energy storage projects.

After several years of weak solar demand growth in Europe, compared to the historical highs of 2011, installations are expected to surge by 88% to reach a new installation record of 23 GW in 2019, writes Cormac Gilligan, research manager at IHS Markit. A range of favorable macro conditions have coalesced this year to reignite the market.

Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy group Masdar is sailing into the Southeast Asian solar market with Indonesia’s first floating solar project. The petro-state owned developer says the facility will be the largest in the region.

A Department of Energy agency expects 17.4 GW (DC) of utility scale solar power generation capacity plus 6.6 GW of small scale PV will be installed in 2020. That volume would be 60% higher than the record, set in 2016.