Commercial & Industrial PV

At the Smarter E Europe, held in Munich this month, pv magazine hosted another Future PV Roundtable to discuss the possibilities of subsidy free solar projects. In all market segments solutions are at hand and representatives across the industry shared their insights with us.

In the first four months of the year, over 1.6 GW of solar power generation capacity came online in the country. Next month the FITs for rooftop PV will fall by 1.4%.

Among 45 critical energy technologies and sectors assessed in a tracking report by the International Energy Agency, only seven are keeping hopes alive that climate, energy access and air pollution goals can be met.

Although the nation’s PV industry has recently established new landmarks, warnings have been sounded about the immediate outlook for the sector.

The race is on to process applications for central payments across the world’s biggest solar market, particularly as qualifying projects must reportedly be grid connected this year. The final electricity price will be a major competitive factor considered by the Beijing authorities.

Australia’s national science agency CSIRO and Canada’s University of British Columbia have announced a memorandum of understanding aimed at accelerating clean hydrogen technologies.

With clean energy being generated at lower and lower prices around the world, solar power is playing a leading role in bringing the curtain down on coal, and will help the decarbonization of transport and space heating too.

One 15 MW project will see the installation of high power mono bifacial modules – no small feat for any market. Other projects will be collocated with the country’s industry to improve security of supply, as load shedding occurs for several hours each day.

Renewable energy investment in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding China, will overtake spending on oil and gas exploration and production by 2020, finds Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy. And Australia is set to emerge as one of the leading investment destinations.

With Narendra Modi’s government stunning pollsters with another huge win, the solar industry expects renewable power momentum to be maintained with steps including anti-dumping duty on solar module imports, a national policy for rooftop solar and an emphasis on easing private-sector participation in the power sector.