Highlights

The expansion of The smarter E Europe exhibition and conference continues apace in 2019, with the growth of power-to-gas as well as solar and battery storage’s increasing competitiveness capturing new territory. It is managing to meet both system requirements and customer demand.

After being excluded from the A-6 auction last year, solar will now be entitled to compete for 20-year PPAs alongside wind, hydro and thermal power projects in future procurements. The next auction will be held on September 26.

And the analyst expects that annual new additions figure to rise to 10.6 GW in 2025. This year the U.S. will surpass South Korea as the largest storage market due to new capacity for solar-plus-storage projects. In Japan and Australia, growth will be spurred by the termination of FIT programs.

With the deadline set by the Trump administration for avoiding a rise in further penalties on Chinese imports having passed without resolution last night, the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing reportedly warned of countermeasures, a threat which will raise fears among members of the Norwegian firm’s U.S. workforce.

By providing solar-plus-storage, contracting to supply capacity in wholesale markets and even considering microgrid communities, Sunrun is taking on more of the space traditionally occupied by utilities and large, centralized power generators.

The procurement – for PV capacity at the Dholera Solar Park – attracted bids for just 300 MW as developers shunned a tariff ceiling of $0.039/kWh.

The Japanese multinational will transfer its Panasonic Energy Malaysia unit to Chinese heterojunction module provider GS-Solar as part of a broader cooperation agreement. Panasonic’s solar R&D business will form part of a JV in Japan to be 90% owned by GS-Solar.

The company has reported declining revenues and increasing losses in its first-quarter update. A plan to reduce polysilicon production will begin in a week’s time and if access to the Chinese market is not restored, a complete shutdown could be in place by the end of June.

The green hydrogen production plant planned for the Lloseta industrial area will be a pioneer project for Spain and Europe, say regional government officials, and is scheduled to start operating from 2021.

Flat Glass wants shareholders to back a $213 million convertible bond issue to provide the cash to raise its PV glass production capacity to 1.65 million tons per year. The company has already ramped up output so fast it is running short of funds.