Highlights

The new 1 GW Yeka tender in Turkey is more than welcome, says KRC Consulting’s Hakki Karacaoglan and Life Enerji’s Ramazan Aslan. Regulations to enable “green electricity” tariffs, also announced this month, add further momentum to the country’s solar sector – allowing Turkish consumers choose renewable energy for their power supply.

A study into the clean energy tech innovation rate required to keep global heating under control may suggest concepts such as lithium-air could yet keep us to the mid-century ambition, but it is also starting to contemplate the temperature rise to be expected if we only achieve net-zero by 2070.

In times of crisis, a population usually divides itself into two opinion groups. On the one hand, there are those who believe the storm will pass and things will return to business as usual. And on the other, there are those who took the time to embrace the new reality, accepted it, and now swear that the old world has disappeared and won’t ever come back. In general, writes Becquerel Institute’s Gaëtan Masson, reality splits between the two and makes everyone wrong. And this is what might be about to happen in the solar PV sector.

The organizers of the Solar Solutions International event which was postponed in March have persuaded the Dutch government industry events should not be subject to the same Covid-19 restrictions as concerts.

Developers from France and Germany and investors with access to cheap U.S. and U.K. finance were among the winners in a 2 GW procurement round which saw Spanish company Solarpack lodge a record-low price for Indian solar power of $0.031/kWh.

Enso Energy and the former U.K. national Green Investment Bank now owned by Australian investor Macquarie, have revealed plans to develop an extensive solar project portfolio across England and Wales that will reportedly include tracker and bifacial technology and will be financed by power purchase agreements.

Some European countries and emerging markets are now showing signs of slow recovery, as the Covid-19 pandemic brought overseas markets to a shuddering halt in late March. However, demand is expected to remain weak through the beginning of the third quarter, writes PV InfoLink’s Amy Fang, as it will take time for overseas markets to snap back. Meanwhile, the Chinese market is again busy with the June 30 installation rush, as the government has left tariff timelines unchanged up to the middle of May.

An assessment of the human rights performance of the world’s leading solar and wind power companies has painted a grim state of affairs, with the only dedicated solar manufacturer analyzed scoring 7%.

The Chinese manufacturer has debuted two models in the new bifacial, double-glass series to join the scramble for a slice of the 500 W-plus market and to stake its claim to have the 182mm, M10 wafer adopted as the industry standard.

According to the IEA’s World Energy Investment 2020 report, the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest ever drop in global energy spending, with investment expected to plunge in every major sector, from fossil fuels to renewables and efficiency. Felicia Jackson explores the future of solar and the impact green stimulus could have on the sector.