According to the Silver Institute, demand for the precious metal in the solar industry will remain stable up to 2022, despite recent changes in China’s PV policy.

The panel fab, with a production capacity of 200 MW, is in Vinnytsia, central Ukraine. The factory’s capacity is expected to double by the end of the year.

State-owned utility Hydro-Quebec will deploy its first 10 MW of ground-mounted solar to test the technology at the province’s latitude. The hydropower company is also using storage to better manage winter peak demand. Bifacial modules will be included in both projects.

Indra Overland, head of the Center for Energy Research at the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, explains how the world’s future energy landscape may include pan-regional super-grids. However, prosumer states seeking energy independence could also be in the mix. According to Overland, the two developments will go hand in hand and the balance between them will be determined by the competitiveness of storage technologies.

Russian module manufacturer Hevel will deploy 1.2 MW of solar at an hydropower facility operated by local energy provider Rushydro in the Amur region. The solar installation is intended to help the company better manage the power plant, while also reducing its operational costs.

Interested developers of large-scale PV plants, with more than 2 MW capacity, have until the end of the year to send proposals. The expression of interest is for projects to be developed with the utility or to be sold to it.

The procurement is planned for May 16 and will award 15-year PPAs to projects based on conventional and renewable energy generation. Solar could help remove the state’s reliance on power generated by a company based in crisis-torn Venezuela.

Although the prospects for large-scale British solar appear grim, the U.K. trade association for the industry says the compelling economic case offered by PV is ensuring activity continues despite a prolonged policy vacuum.

The system is said to have a maximum estimation error of less than 10% and to reduce the computational requirements for calculating the output of PV systems in complex environments. The approach is based on the correlation between a skyline profile and the annual irradiation received at a particular spot.

Approximately 261.7 MW of new PV systems were deployed in the country last year, according to provisional numbers from solar energy association UNEF. Once again, rooftop PV for self-consumption drove demand, although 26 MW of ground-mounted solar parks were connected in 2018.