Highlights

This week’s Intersolar India 2017 in Mumbai, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday at the Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC), highlighted both the potential and the challenges of India’s vast residential PV market. Everything from policy to unique environmental challenges and installation processes was discussed.

Milan Koev, REC Group’s Vice President Sales & Marketing APAC, speaks to pv magazine about the potential of India’s rooftop solar market.

A major milestone was surpassed in the Australian PV market last month, indicating that the rooftop solar sector is in robust health. However, not tracked in the figures underlying the record are large commercial rooftops and distributed battery storage, and reports are that here too strong growth is being achieved.

GTM Research reports that utilities in 15 states are incorporating energy storage into their long-term plans, as energy storage deployment reached a relatively even keel during Q3 2017.

The latest monthly report from the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency shows that U.S. PV output in the first nine months of 2017 grew 47% over the same period in 2016, with market growth across the nation. PV represented 1.9% of total generation during this period.

The deadline to submit project proposals is February 1. In addition, the Bundesnetzagentur has scheduled the first joint auction for large-scale wind and solar projects for April 1, 2018.

Having reportedly ended its relationship with SMA Solar, Siemens has announced it will be manufacturing and supplying 5 MW inverters to the Indian market.

Overall, 42 bids were submitted to Lebanon’s Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC) for 180 MW of tendered PV capacity. The LCEC will now start the evaluation process in two weeks.

Under the new policy, the government of India’s smallest state is aiming to install around 150 MW of PV capacity by 2022.

The first window to submit solar projects will be opened in the so-called “Spring Round” on March 19. The program is open, among other renewable energy projects, to solar plants over 1 MW and projects ranging in size from 15 kW to 1 MW.