The electricity produced by the floating array will power the Cable Park aquatic park, with surplus power injected into the grid. The project is part of a series of floating plants the Flemish government has been supporting since October.

Two reports have concluded rooftop solar may replace PV parks as the main growth driver in the two big Asian markets over the next decade. Support programs for utility scale PV in both countries no longer seem attractive enough.

The plant is being developed by German company Droege Energy as an unsolicited IPP project. The electricity produced by the floating array will be bought by local utility Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Limited (ESCOM).

After a power purchase agreement for a 125 MW solar project was announced in February, similar deals appear to be cropping up. Danish PV analysts, however, warn of the potential risks of such a model and say the green commitments of big electricity consumers may not be enough to spur growth in the segment.

Europe’s most important scientific research institutes have joined forces to make perovskite solar applications more than just a dream. The European Perovskite Initiative consortium is planning to draw up a perovskite white paper.

The Kazakh state-owned national atomic energy company has sold its three manufacturing units to an international consortium. The sale of its solar business has been planned since May 2017.

Researchers claim the cell they have developed is able to retain 90% of its efficiency after 1,000 hours under extreme light and heat conditions.

The government has finally issued a net metering scheme for solar systems not exceeding 10 kW of generation capacity – the country’s first attempt to support small scale PV. New rules for larger, unlicensed projects have also been introduced, with the size limit for eligible systems raised to 5 MW.

The European solar trade body expects 128 GW of new PV capacity in 2019, with China likely to bring around 43 GW online and Europe experiencing enough demand to deploy about 20.4 GW. In 2020, global solar demand is expected to reach 144 GW, while in the following three years new PV additions are forecast to total 158 GW, 169 GW and 180 GW, respectively.

The Kingdom of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, has began the procurement process for 40 MW of PV capacity. The projects, which will be assigned by 2020, will also include 40 MW of biomass. The new capacity will make the kingdom less dependent on power imports from South African utility Eskom, which currently faces a financial and operational crisis.