Highlights

Polysilicon and wafer suppliers are still struggling with oversupply and low demand. Tier 1 raw material manufacturers have signed their October orders, but further down the food chain, companies are still waiting for bites. Overall, prices on the cell and module level are in slight decline, although prices for ultra-high efficiency modules have climbed by a small margin, on the back of increased demand.

Announcing the appointment a new managing director for Australia and Asia Pacific, thee German storage provider has confirmed it expects to produce the first batteries from its production line at the former Holden site in Elizabeth, SA, next month.

The smart battery storage supplier has launched a 35 MWh cluster in Japan. This could grow to over 100 MWh within a year, says Moixa.

Tesla energy storage deployments grew 18% and storage deployments grew 11%, as the EV + battery + solar company achieves its a long-awaited quarterly profit on the success of its Model 3.

Despite political hurdles in key markets including China, India and Japan, Asia remains highly active. This year, 59 GW of solar is expected to be installed and due to further system price declines, a phase-out of subsidy schemes can be offset.

The 30 MW/30 MWh Ballarat Battery Energy Storage System, the first big battery brought online in the state of Victoria, has been officially commissioned by the Victorian Labor government, as the first of the two grid-scale batteries that will provide support to the state’s grid by the start of this summer Down Under.

Swedish battery supplier Northvolt has announced plans for a manufacturing plant in Gdansk, Poland. The company says that the plant will have an initial capacity of 10,000 battery modules per year and will begin production in 2019.

Big players such as Acme, ReNew, Adani, Azure, Hero Future and Aditya Birla Solar are likely to stay away from procurement which requires 3 GW annual manufacturing commitment, says industry insider Gopal Lal Somani.

As part of a strategic alliance, BASF and Norilsk Nickel aim to meet growing demand for battery materials for electric vehicles.

The Indian state has set an electricity price ceiling of INR3.10/kWh and reserved the right to cancel the auction if it doesn’t fancy the resulting tariff. Bidders can go for projects ranging in size from 5 MW up to the whole capacity on offer.