Residential PV

While analyzing the role of social spillovers in the adoption of solar energy solutions, a research team has found that cultural and language barriers may represent a factor causing lower levels of development. In particular, they discovered that the adoption of rooftop PV solutions may be up to 20% lower in border regions between the French-speaking and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland.

The leading trio – China, the United States and India – will comprise 70% of the projected 552 GW of solar capacity, which will be added between end-2017 and 2027, finds Fitch Solutions, which has revised down its original forecast for solar capacity growth in China. The curbed growth in China, due to subsidy cuts and restricted access to the United States and India, is expected to squeeze domestic solar equipment manufacturers, but also lead to access to cheaper solar panels in other smaller markets.

The rise of batteries will attract that headline figure in investment up to 2040, say analysts, as exponential growth in EV ownership, falling stationery system costs and the needs of the world’s grid-poor regions combine to boost lithium-ion technology.

The International Renewable Energy Agency says Asia is offering the largest amount of people mini grid access, with the development of such systems mostly led by governments. Global installed capacity reached 308 MW at the end of 2017.

The inverter maker took number one spot in the US from SMA this year, and acquired majority stakes and IP in uninterrupted power supply company Gamatronic and storage system provider Kokam. While other companies have consolidated, SolarEdge managed to report robust results.

Although industry representatives are predicting no falling-off in the market next year, there is nothing in the latest set of figures to support such a positive outlook.

The new decree, which regulates the law for DG promulgated at the end of 2017, is intended to support distributed generation of renewable energy sources under net metering. The fund for DG, though, has shrunk by half in value thanks to currency depreciation.

Around the half of this capacity was deployed from April to September, according to new official statistics released by the Ukrainian authorities.

The new capacity figure fell on the previous month, mainly because fewer ground-mounted systems went online. The monthly retreat of FIT payments will stay at 1% for the next three months. According to SolarPower Europe, Germany will be by far the largest market in Europe, with 3 GW of new capacity this year.