Highlights

Europe’s coal powerhouse is making progress in the deployment of renewable energy and it appears that the nation’s banks are beginning to see the value of clean-power investment.

The third round of the nation’s Large Scale Solar procurement program was oversubscribed more than 13 times its 500 MW limit. The final electricity price is likely to beat the previous $0.079-0.13/kWh to settle somewhere around $0.042-0.057.

The District Court of Dessau-Roßlau yesterday confirmed self-administered insolvency proceedings have been conducted at the German thin-film CIGS module manufacturer and a provisional administrator has been appointed.

A 600 MW project will be built on degraded land by a Polish investment fund and utility PGE has agreed to build a 500 MW facility for one of the country’s largest energy intensive companies – copper and silver producer KGHM Polska Miedź.

Having stated an intent to hit 65 GW of annual mono wafer production capacity by the end of 2021, the Chinese solar manufacturing giant has now said that landmark will be achieved next year.

The governments of the two African nations are considering deploying huge volumes of generation capacity over two decades. The project, still in its initial phase, is being supported by the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Energy.

A consortium of European research institutes has received €10.6 million in EU funding to establish pilot production of a high efficiency module concept developed by Swiss startup Insolight. The module combines high efficiency multijunction cells with a solar concentrator lens and has previously demonstrated 29% efficiency.

Two of Germany’s leading research institutes and a CIGS module maker have announced plans to work on the development of perovskite-CIGS tandem cells with a target of producing thin film modules with better than 30% efficiency.

The early development of PV projects in Latin America was spearheaded by one country: Chile. And while there remain prospects for large-scale project development, its distributed generation segment has the potential for enormous growth, says Marcela Puntí Martín, the general manager of the Chilean Solar Energy Association (ACESOL).

Vehicle-to-grid functions could soon become increasingly important. While policymakers discuss the necessary regulations in other nations, the Netherlands government is motoring ahead with the technology.