The consulting firm expects prices to decline gradually through the first semester of 2023, followed by an accelerated decline in the second half of the year, with prices falling from the current CNY 300 ($36.64)/kg to below CNY 150/kg by the end of 2023. Polysilicon production capacity may increase from 500 GW in 2022 to 975 GW next year.

A group of Swiss researchers has shown that optimized alpine PV installations could offer revenues that are on average 20% higher than those of standard, urban, installations. Furthermore, they found that the Swiss Alps have the potential to host about 1 GW of solar capacity offering revenues 33% higher.

Analysis from Aurora Energy Research shows around 4.3 GW of solar projects secured grid-connection permits to date in Portugal. Data also shows a record 1.2 GW of solar projects requested generation licenses in the first seven months of the year, smashing previous records.

Alfanar has revealed plans to set up a solar project including ground-mounted and floating PV to provide power to the Al Jubail 2 water desalination plant on the east coast of Saudi Arabia. It will require an investment of SAR 1.2 billion ($319 million).

The Portuguese government said in a new legal decree that it will adjust the prices, according to inflation, of winning bids from its record-breaking solar auctions in 2019 and 2020. It will also extend the period during which projects can sell electricity at spot market prices by 12 months.

BloombergNEF (BNEF) has outlined a potential transition plan for a coal-fired power plant in Belchatow, Poland. It said that 5 GW of solar and 5.7 GW of wind could replace 80% of Belchatow’s lignite generation capacity by 2036, in an optimal scenario.

The International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (IEA PVPS) estimates that 173.5 GW of new solar capacity was installed in 2021, and that figure might rise to 260 GW in 2022. pv magazine spoke with the co-chair of the European Solar Manufacturing Council to look into the figures.

TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy, and Marubeni have switched on Qatar’s first large-scale solar plant in Al Kharsaah, west of Doha. The Siraj-1 plant features 2 million Longi Hi-MO 4 bifacial modules mounted on single-axis trackers.

Researchers from China have discovered that 91 abandoned mines in China could host pumped hydropower storage facilities, with a total installed capacity of 15,830 MW.

Prices rose in all European energy markets between July and September, according to a new report by LevelTen Energy. Germany and Poland recorded the highest prices, while Spain and Finland recorded the lowest. Solar PPA prices rose by 15.4% – almost twice as much as wind prices.