Highlights

According to Swiss consultancy Pexapark, around 400 MW of power purchase agreements were closed in Europe in March. Germany and Spain were the most dynamic PPA markets during the first quarter of the year.

The urgency to mitigate climate change and the need for more energy independence in many countries will boost demand for renewable energy to unprecedented levels. Meanwhile, trade conflicts, the logistics crisis, and insufficient supplies of raw materials have disrupted supply chains for the past two years. This has resulted in higher prices for solar equipment, challenging the predictability of on-time delivery and the quality of products. Sebastian Petretschek, TÜV Rheinland’s global head of PV power plants, examines the key issues in module procurement for investors.

While Europe was previously a leader in the manufacturing of solar cells and modules, the plans falling into place this year already represent a scale never before seen on the continent. And they’ll need that scale if Europe is to meet expected demand for new solar over the coming decades, without relying heavily on imported products and components. Many of the technologies at the center of these plans are brand new as well; pv magazine looks at a few of the innovators planning to scale up alongside more mainstream players, and how these fit into plans for a fully fledged European PV supply chain.

EDPR, Finerge, Voltalia and Endesa were among the winners of Portugal’s latest renewables procurement exercise, in which 163 MW of floating PV capacity was allocated.

A think tank analysis suggests that if solar power keeps up its growth pace, along with wind, then the global power sector will meet its carbon reduction targets to keep world temperatures in check.

German renewable energy developer Juwi has completed a 204MW solar plant with more than 500,000 JinkoSolar PV modules. The company said it is currently Europe’s largest bifacial solar park.

Australian deployment of battery storage remained steady in 2021, according to market research firm SunWiz, bringing cumulative installations to 1,089MWh.

India installed 41.7GW of cumulative utility-scale solar capacity as of Dec. 31, 2021. It has another 44.6GW in the pipeline.

Germany has come up with new measures that could lead to a cumulative installed PV capacity of 215GW by 2030. Higher feed-in tariffs for rooftop PV will likely be announced soon.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) said that 90% of respondents to a recent survey about the US anti-circumvention investigation expect a severe or devastating impact on their businesses due to the ongoing probe.