Residential PV

The U.K. government has cold-shouldered PV with a row of disfavourable policies, which have put at risk the financial viability of new arrays. In the past few last years, the market has remained almost flat, with installations sitting at around 200 MW per year.

The Accelerating Battery Storage for Development program is intended to leverage US$4 billion in new investments, and to support projects for utility-scale solar parks with battery storage, off-grid systems, including mini-grids, and stand-alone batteries.

German suppliers may still play a central role in providing residential storage systems, however the increasing number of Asian manufacturers on the European market is undeniable. Particularly in the U.K. and Italy, they have captured the lion’s share of sales.

Labour this morning unveiled plans for an energy system free of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but it is unclear what proportion of the party’s “clean energy” mix would be met by nuclear.

The two companies have installed systems in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo to provide a cheap, secure energy supply. BloombergNEF has predicted the market for off-grid solar will grow considerably as it can meet the needs for universal energy supply at a cost competitive price.

The state government is proposing a range of incentives and mandates to drive PV and solar thermal installations to almost 9 GW within four years. Under the proposed policy, 10% of the public fleet would be replaced by electric vehicles.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has announced there will be no replacement for the nation’s renewables target, casting a long shadow over investment predictability in the Australian renewable energy sector.

More than 100 free storage systems will given to residential and commercial users to maximize utilization rates of storage systems while reducing costs for grid operators. The algorithms behind the technology would improve the supply situation and shave peak demand.

The EU PVSEC conference and exhibition in Brussels began this morning with presentations from key figures in PV development, who celebrated the technology’s achievements so far and predicted even bigger things in the coming years. pv magazine‘s Mark Hutchins was on hand to hear all about it.

pv magazine’s Quality Roundtable at the 2018 Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo, took place in front of a packed audience. It discussed current problem areas in the India solar industry; how solar developers and solution providers can improve the quality of PV installations; and innovative financial instruments to reduce the cost of debt and scale up infrastructure investment.