Although the Wiki-Solar website ranking only provides a snapshot of PV project engineering, procurement and construction contracts outside of China, it is nevertheless a useful indicator of the changing global solar market landscape. Of the top 11 companies, four are based in India, three in Germany, and two in the United States. But last year’s largest contractor, U.S.-based First Solar, might lose its leading position this year, as it has largely discontinued its EPC activities.

Dutch research center TNO is setting up a test facility for floating PV plants in Oostvoornse, where it will analyze the impact of wind and waves on floating structures and module yield. TNO Senior Project Manager Jan Kroon told pv magazine that it will assess module damage and the impact of waves on light absorption. It has already found that the ratio between wave-height and wave-length is a key factor in mismatch losses, while noting that optimizers and micro-inverters on panels could mitigate losses.

The European Commission has launched a 12-week online public consultation period for its 2030 climate targets.

Global grid-connected solar capacity reached 580.1 GW at the end of 2019, along with 3.4 GW of offgrid PV, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Total installed renewables capacity hit a remarkable 2,563.8 GW, with hydropower remaining the dominant source at 1,310.9 GW, followed by wind at 622.7 GW.

A French-Turkish research team has created an economic model to optimize scheduling for solar-powered EV charging units. The proposed model suggests that such projects might be more profitable today than at the end of the decade, depending on a wide range of variables.

The U.S. conglomerate plans to deploy and test new controls with its commercial PV LV5 inverter platform. It aims to develop “grid-forming” controls to allow wind and solar inverters to form voltage and frequency levels like traditional generators. The company wants to improve coordination and synchronization among multiple grid-forming resources, and is working on smart PV reserve controls to improve the transient stability of systems with high renewables penetration.

National utility Transpower said that solar could take a 9.3% share of the country’s generation mix by the middle of the century. However, real growth is only forecast to occur from 2035, with distributed generation expected to account for more than 80% of total installed PV.

The shortlisted developers are EDF, Total, ACWA Power, Masdar, First Solar, Marubeni, and Al Blagha Holding.

In a recent chat with pv magazine, Jason Tundermann – vice president of business development at U.S. trading advisory service LevelTen Energy – predicted a better-than-expected scenario for corporate clean-energy PPAs on the Old Continent. He said the net value of long-term PPA offers has not dropped dramatically, offering hope to corporate buyers.

The so-called Optiverter is an all-in-one residential solution developed by startup Ubik Solutions and researchers from Estonia’s TalTech Power Electronics Research Group. The developers claim that the new solution can provide 30% more power than traditional microinverters under partially shaded conditions.