The Obsidian Renewables project will employ the company’s 72-cell solar panels. SolarWorld is expanding its output of the new modules in a new factory at its Hillsboro, Oregon, headquarters.

While rooftop solar has dominated the Western Australian market in the past five years, the company aims to offer solar farms to provide competitively priced electricity to customers who want power from renewable sources but do not have rooftop installations.

The German company’s new supply chain strategy provides manufacturing redundancy and ensures reliable supply of key raw materials. The move comes in the wake of an accident earlier this month that halted production at Japanese silver powder supplier Dowa Hightec.

The Canadian group is set to become an international independent power producer with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton blasted retroactive changes to Nevada’s net metering law, Australia relaunched its investigation into anti-dumping case against Chinese solar producers and India continues to impress and attract new solar solar developers.

Construction on the project began last December in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Enel Green Power was awarded a PPA in a national auction for this project.

The Chinese company is demanding the return of a $64 million advance plus damages after a planned deal with Hareon failed to transpire.

Germany’s federal Ministry of Economics has taken stock after the first three pilot tenders for ground-mounted solar PV systems. It particularly notes the decline of prices from round to round, and stakeholder diversity. Whether tenders are likely to achieve installation targets, politicians cannot yet say, however. The Green Party, meanwhile, has criticized the Federal Government for wanting to expand renewable energy tenders without having reliable results.

ARENA’s shortlist of projects under its AU$100 million (US$69.4 million) support program for large-scale PV aims to drive down soft costs including construction costs, finance, and BoS components, says the agency’s CEO Ivor Frischknecht. Shortlisted projects developers include large international companies with proven track records, indicating such cost reductions appear likely.

At a presentation of its latest solar innovations yesterday in Freiberg, Germany’s largest solar cell and module manufacturer announced a PERC efficiency of 22%. Advances in busbar-less modules with half cells and bifacial PV modules were also announced.