Highlights

Australia’s largest hybrid solar and battery project, the New England Solar Farm and Battery Project in northern New South Wales, reached a new milestone over the weekend, following the delivery of the first of two massive 250 MVA transformers.

The second day of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue was dominated by the role of renewables in facing three world crises: climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine.

Footwear producer Golden Solar announced it would enter the solar market last year, with a focus on heterojunction devices.

SolarPower Europe believes that more than 1TW of photovoltaics could be installed in Europe by 2030 to support the phase-out of Russian gas supplies. EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson has even used a famous quote by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to underscore her determination to build up cell and module production on the continent.

Utilities are reshaping their PPA strategies as hungry corporates twist what we thought we knew about procurement approaches. All the while, project owners and operators are seeking an answer to the lingering question: After the 10-year PPA, what next? Luca Pedretti, chief operating officer at Pexapark, reads the market and predicts how we can move forward.

The SolarPower Summit 2022, held this week in Brussels, could prove to be a pivotal point in Europe’s energy transition. Weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, the solar industry and the European Commission have come together to discuss solar’s role in the future of continental energy security.

In SunPower’s analyst day presentation, company executives announced that it is working with First Solar to develop a new type of residential solar module that pairs thin film with traditional silicon.

In other news, the UK charging infrastructure is in for a major boost, Volkswagen aims to catch up with Tesla, and the first all-electric Rolls-Royce completes winter tests near the Arctic Circle.

In other news, JinkoSolar secured a 1GW supply agreement with CNNC Rich Energy Corporation Limited and Yunnan Province announced a plan to deploy another 50GW of PV over the next three years.

This week saw more than 300 scientists and PV experts converge in Konstanz, Germany for discussion of the latest development in PV cell technology, and for many the first chance for a face-to-face meeting in quite some time. pv magazine reports from the SiliconPV conference, where the PV research community revealed a strong focus on eliminating or optimizing the use of critical materials like silver and indium from cell production, alongside a wealth of improvements in efficiency and longevity that is still possible for silicon PV technology.