Highlights

When the minister of environment and energy announced a ceiling tariff of €45/MWh, analysts speculated the price would be too low as it undercut average bidding prices in the region. Preliminary, unconfirmed results of the exercise show, however, companies are happy to bid for two-cent solar in Europe.

A report by Greenpeace has found in the five years since China announced the continent spanning ‘One Belt, One Road’ infrastructure plan, investment in Belt & Road countries has supported 12.6 GW of wind and solar power generation capacity. That compares with just 450 MW which came online in the territories before 2014. The initiative has also supported 68 GW of new coal capacity.

The Palo Alto company says it has improved its large scale battery offering with the new product in the wake of the success of its Powerpack-driven big battery in Australia. The Megapack can be deployed at a 250 MW/1 GWh clean energy plant four times faster than a fossil fuel alternative, claimed the business in a blogpost.

Scientists at Rice University in Texas have developed a device which converts heat into light by squeezing it into a smaller bandgap. The ‘hyperbolic thermal emitter’ could be combined with a PV system to convert energy otherwise wasted as heat – a development the researchers say could drastically increase efficiency.

The state-owned China News Service today reported almost $80 million is left in the pot for large scale project subsidies this year despite almost 420 facilities with a combined generation capacity of 1.77 GW having missed out in the auction.

Research on bifacial solar panel performance has moved performance analysis closer to a standardized practice than ever before. More field tests are underway across the United States, and the first waves of data are expected this year. These tests will help standardize a predictive model for bifacial projects that is bankable.

In July 2016 Nigeria signed power purchase agreements with 14 utility scale PV projects with a total generation capacity of 1,075 MW. None of the projects has reached financial close and pv magazine has learned the government wants to reduce the agreed tariffs.

Quasi-governmental body the CPIA has released first-half figures for the world’s biggest solar marketplace which show production volumes for export markets continuing to expand and the domestic picture set to rebound after public solar subsidy levels were published.

The London-based developer revealed blockbusting annual figures which show it is debt free, has almost £20 million in the bank, raked in more than half that figure in net profits in 2018-19 and expects twice as much in a year’s time.

According to the latest market forecast published by Wood Mackenzie, it seems that global PV installation figures will rise to 125 GW per year from 2020. Continued global capacity expansion will come in through a growing gigawatts-club.