The Portuguese government plans to allocate over 2 GW of PV capacity through two procurement exercises to be held in June and January. Among the potential bidders — who Portugal’s state secretary for energy, João Galamba, expects to meet soon — there is a range of different Portuguese and foreign players of varying sizes.

Although the Italian PV industry only posted a slight increase compared to the first quarter of the previous two years, the market has continued to grow at an average of around 30 MW per month over the past five years, while still being driven by rooftop solar. More growth is expected from the PPA segment and upcoming auctions. The European Commission still needs to approve a decree regulating the country’s procurement scheme, however.

The PPA relates to a 5 MW solar project that the renewable energy unit of local utility PGE is developing in south-central Poland. The facility, which is expected to come online in mid-2022, will sell power to two big chemical companies operating in the region.

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has agreed to finance a feasibility study for the country’s first large-scale PV project, which is a 20 MW solar facility that has been under development since 2017, in the tiny African country’s Mafeteng district.

The joint venture of the two giant manufacturers will expand its capacity from around 30 GW currently to 55 GW over the next three years. This plan is expected to require an overall investment of $1.34 billion.

Although only two of the nine projects selected in the auction are for hybrid biomass-solar power plants with some storage, seven will rely on renewable energy sources. The largest selected project, however, is a 123 MW gas power plant in the city of Boa Vista.

The Taiwanese manufacturer has confirmed plans to focus on PERC cell production, while scaling down its operational cell capacity from 5 GW to 2.5 GW. It said it could return to full capacity if cell demand rises again, however.

In a new interview in a series on renewable energy and geopolitics, Indra Overland describes the possible trajectory of China’s bid to become the world’s solar energy leader. After building a leading position in key technologies and manufacturing, China may find a potential partner in the European Union, especially if the U.S. government pushes forward with its trade war against Beijing, Overland says. Solar and renewables are also helping the country expand its influence in Southeast Asia, fuelling concerns among some of its neighbors, he adds.

A Russian research team believes that the addition of rare-earth ions into the structure of photonic nanoparticles could help to increase the efficiency of industrial solar cells to 25–30%. However, they also said that further research is necessary.

The Jordanian PV module manufacturer plans to add two new production lines at its factory in Amman over the next 12 weeks. The new lines will add half-cell and bifacial mono PERC modules to the company’s product range.