Clearly surprised by the explosion in popularity of PV in the last two years, Michigan’s Consumers Energy has asked for time to process outstanding interconnection requests which could not ‘have been predicted by the company in earlier years’.

Alta Devices’ gallium arsenide solar research cells have been certified with a 29.1% efficiency, setting a new single junction solar cell efficiency record. The most significant change, however, isn’t actually the efficiency; it is that the weight fell 30%, and from the words of Alta Devices, its process has lowered material costs to “essentially nothing”.

Con Edison states that it has become the number two solar power generator in North America with the finalization of its Sempra purchase which included 980 MWac of operating solar.

The thin film PV maker projects 5.4 to 5.6 GW of module shipments next year, more than double its current projected 2018 volumes of 2.6 to 2.7 GW.

NREL has proposed a new methodology for determining solar module degradation rates, taking into account measurement challenges such as sensor drift, inverter nuances, soiling and others – keeping the focus on the solar modules themselves.

Wood Mackenzie notes that new investors and sources of capital are chasing down a limited supply of viable U.S. solar projects and sees tightening targets, expanding project appetite, and evolving techniques.

A Wood Mackenzie report shows U.S. energy storage deployments tripling in capacity during Q3 ’18 versus last year’s volume, while noting that the future pipeline growth rate doubled versus prior quarters to reach 33 GW of future projects.

A University of Michigan team hopes to offer a 15% efficient solar window product, which allows 50% of the light through. It has received US$1.3 million from the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office to develop the idea further.

Lazard’s newly released Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis 12.0, and Storage 4.0, finds that where utility scale wind works, it dominates – and that the unsubsidized cost to build new utility wind and solar facilities is equal to, and often less than running already-built fossil facilities.

Enphase’s 3rd quarter results saw revenues at $78 million with an estimated $10 million sales shortfall due to a component shortage, as the company shipped 204 MW of inverters. Future speculation saw an international play on the IQ8, the SunPower partnership, and energy storage driving growth.