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The French energy regulator has expanded the maximum permitted distance between members of an energy community from 2 km to 20 km.

Researchers have simulated a cart-mounted solar pump which they say would mean farmers in off-grid areas would be able to irrigate fields by paying only for the solar electricity used.

SolarPower Europe has predicted the volume of new PV capacity added this year will be 4% less than last year’s figure because of the Covid-19 crisis. At the end of 2019, the world had topped 630 GW of solar. For 2020, around 112 GW of new PV capacity is expected, and in 2021, newly installed capacity could be 149.9 GW if governments support renewables in their coronavirus economic recovery plans.

The companies driving the solar home system boom in the nation, in part with the help of public money, wants Dhaka to authorize the addition of PV in 18,000 public health facilities.

Sun Exchange has closed a $4 million Series-A funding round by obtaining a $3 million investment from ARPF, a Mauritian private equity fund. The peer-to-peer solar leasing platform said it will use the funds to help its members deploy solar solutions across sub-Saharan Africa.

The prime minister again emphasized the need for India to develop its own solar manufacturing industry and also urged officials to get on with plans to make the region of Ladakh carbon-neutral.

The incentive scheme awards a 23-year, $0.12/kWh feed-in tariff to rooftop arrays with a generation capacity of up to 200 kW. Already, 141 municipalities have applied to install 116 MW of rooftop solar capacity and the government has increased the program’s budget from $28.5 million to $143 million.

U.K.-based Power Transition today launched a crowdfunding exercise to raise the £300,000 it says it needs to scale up its blockchain-based, peer-to-peer energy trading platform beyond a 47-home demonstration project.

U.S. thinktank the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says the nation should reorder its power network to harness cheap, modular renewables after existing power station overcapacity was worsened by plunging electricity demand during the Covid-19 shutdown.

The Indian government plans to set up of a 10 MW grid-connected solar project and a range of unique off-grid applications – including solar trees and solar drinking water kiosks – to meet all the energy requirements of town situated next to a 13th-century Hindu temple.