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Mini-grid solutions are becoming more popular to deliver electricity to rural areas. There are 1 billion people worldwide without access to electricity and off-grid solutions could be the cheapest and easiest solution for about 70% of them. It is estimated the market in the segment will be worth $64 billion by 2030.

The storage system supplier is providing its technology to the Isles of Scilly as part of an ERDF-funded project to meet the remote islands’ energy demands more cheaply and cleanly. Until now islanders used fossil fuels and electricity from mainland Britain at high tariffs, prompting energy poverty for many.

While Africa has emerged as a dynamic, fast-moving hub, Asia leads in capacity deployment with its total capacity more than tripling to nearly 4.3 GW in 2017 from 1.3 GW in 2008, finds IRENA. Particularly, in India, a strong policy has pushed deployment of off-grid solar for agriculture and public end-uses.

South Africa-based Sun Exchange and U.S. minigrid developer, Powerhive have come together to step up minigrid deployment in rural Kenya by leveraging the crypto economy. The partnership is expected to catalyze up to $23 million of capital and fund around 150 new projects in the country’s power hungry areas.

The project connects four to six households, and lets dwellers pre-purchase daily access to electricity using a mobile app. A successful trial phase has just been finished and the executing association, Nanoé Développement has set new goals to reach in the near future.

The South Korean government has revealed plans to introduce new environmental guidelines and rules on where PV projects can be built, following a public outcry after a landslide smashed into an operational solar array south of the city of Daegu.

Inverter manufacturers tapped into the major theme of digitization in their product presentations at this year’s Smarter E event in Munich – of which Intersolar Europe is a part of. The solutions deploy smart software solutions for maximizing self-consumption, O&M provision and enable hybrid architectures across all three market segments.

As forecast in its 2017 financial report, JinkoSolar shipped around 2 GW of modules in the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, it did not adjust its forecast for 2018 shipments, in the range of 11.5 GW to 12 GW, despite the Chinese government’s cuts to installations.

Distribution network operator, UK Power Networks is on track to launch what it says is London’s first virtual power plant (VPP). To this end, batteries will be installed on around 40 homes in the U.K. capital.

Welsh consultancy’s technology could help business, universities and local councils make fuel savings regardless of lack of PV subsidy in the U.K.