Highlights

Research and development: Martin Green has attended the SNEC every year since its inception. During that time, he and his University New South Wales (UNSW) collaborators have driven a wide range of innovations within the Chinese and global PV manufacturing sector. Green, a Scientia Professor at UNSW and the Director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics shares his take on PV technology in 2018.

A much heralded report shows solar and wind will lower wholesale prices, but it also shows a coming evolution in the pricing profile of the grid. These shifts in timing, shape, regularity and length will drive energy storage demand.

PV inverter shipment volumes have gone up recently, but an increasingly competitive market has seen declining prices, forcing manufacturers to think out of the box to find new business applications for their products.

Although the promised new provisions for net metering are not in force yet, the Turkish government has prepared the ground for future development by granting residential projects under the upcoming scheme an exemption from the 5% income tax on excess power delivered to the grid.

Chinese module giant JinkoSolar today announced that it hit record power output levels for modules based on p-type and n-type technology. Both records are confirmed by TÜV Rheinland in Shanghai.

The Chinese provider of storage and back-up power systems has been awarded the $59.7 million contract to build the facility, which will be located at an industrial area in the Nangarhar province. The tender had been issued in September 2017.

The two solar plants, both located in the region of Orenburg, are scheduled for completion by early 2019.

GCL System Integration Technology (GCL-Si) has revealed tentative plans to buy an unspecified state-linked semiconductor manufacturer, with Chinese media reports suggesting that the Shenzhen-listed PV module supplier may leave the solar cell and module business to exclusively focus on producing wafers for the semiconductor industry.

The Tesla/Panasonic gigafactory is taking on more workers, as a sign of health. However many details remain unclear.

Repsol President Antonio Brufau has ratified the company’s commitment to fighting climate change, while acknowledging the high levels of competitiveness achieved by the renewable energy technologies. In Repsol’s view, however, gas is still considered one of the main pillars of the energy transition, said to ensure a safer power supply than intermittent renewables.