The South Korean government has revealed plans to introduce new environmental guidelines and rules on where PV projects can be built, following a public outcry after a landslide smashed into an operational solar array south of the city of Daegu.

Kyocera will participate in a new project in northern Japan to test how flexibly electricity suppliers can respond to fluctuations in energy supply and demand.

The Japanese government is steadily working toward the release of the country’s fifth strategic energy plan, but it needs to work with the private sector more effectively to promote the deployment of solar over the coming decades, according to a new report. 

GE has finished installing 50 units of its 1.26 MW Brilliance inverters at a 96.2 MW (DC) solar project in southwestern Japan’s Miyazaki prefecture.

Germany’s RCT Power will start manufacturing lithium-ion-phosphate battery storage modules in eastern China this week. The fully automated facility in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, has an initial annual production capacity of 18,000 units.

Residential solar installations have almost trebled in Ho Chi Minh City in the past nine months, in line with the Vietnamese government’s recently announced aim for solar arrays to be installed on 26% of the country’s homes by 2030.

China’s Tongwei and Longi Green Energy Technology have announced a new polysilicon supply deal under which Tongwei will sell 55,000 metric tons of polysilicon to Longi through the end of 2020

GCL System Integration Technology (GCL-Si) has revealed tentative plans to buy an unspecified state-linked semiconductor manufacturer, with Chinese media reports suggesting that the Shenzhen-listed PV module supplier may leave the solar cell and module business to exclusively focus on producing wafers for the semiconductor industry.

The South Korean government has announced plans to formally launch a dispute settlement process with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over U.S. tariffs on PV cells, modules and washing machines.

The evolving outlook for project finance, as well as the gradual maturation of technologies, such as blockchain, present new challenges and opportunities for renewables, EY says in its latest Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) report. Uncertainty in the sector continues to drive a “relentless focus on cost” to soften the impact of protectionism, subsidy cuts and rising interest rates throughout the world, it adds.