IHS Markit at SNEC: Grid parity within reach in China
At their 2018 PV Market Workshop, across the street from the massive SNEC solar exhibition in Shanghai, IHS Markit offered interesting insights into the further development of China’s PV and energy storage markets, as well as the global PV market as a whole.
Record-breaking SNEC in Shanghai
The annual SNEC photovoltaic power expo 2018, in Shanghai, closed yesterday after the 12th edition of the world’s biggest PV exhibition. Reflecting the rapid development of China’s PV industry, the scale of SNEC increased from 15,000 sqm at the first exhibition to 180,000 sqm last year and 200,000 this year – a 10% year-on-year increase. Preliminary figures show more than 220,000 visits to this year’s edition, with more than 5,000 industry professionals attending the expo and series of high-level conferences.
India’s rooftop sector still lagging behind
With barely 1.8 MW solar power (roof top) achieved in the first month of the 2018-2019 financial year, against the end of year target of 1000 MW, India’s solar dreams are hitting massive rooftop blocks. Grid-interactive solar power (ground mounted) has fared better, achieving 231.81 MW against the EoY 10 GW target.
Dutch solar sector fights belief PV is eroding agricultural land
With ground-mounted solar plants popular in the Netherlands, critics says large-scale plants are devouring agricultural land. PV association Holland Solar says even if the country reaches an installed capacity of 16 GW by 2050, only 0.5% of its agricultural surfaces would be covered
France sees first-quarter PV additions almost treble
New grid-connected PV systems from January to March totaled 246 MW, to take the nation’s cumulative capacity to 8.3 GW
Turkey’s rooftop PV seeks a market
The most subscribed event at the recent International Energy and Environment Conference (ICCI), held in Turkey, concerned the host nation’s rooftop PV market – and certain common themes emerged from sessions held on the topic
Survey finds digitalization, decentralization and decarbonization concerns energy leaders
The World Energy Council tracks the top concerns of energy leaders and has created a tool with Arup to display its findings. The rise of digitalization issues and the decreasing significance of fossil fuels indicates a strong renewables market ahead and energy start ups are receiving increasing attention from utilities and leaders
“We helped large-scale solar be commercially viable,” says departing Australian Renewable Energy Agency boss
The booming large scale and rooftop PV market in 2018 is providing reasons to be optimistic about the future of solar under the Australian sun. Reflecting on his six-year tenure as CEO at ARENA ahead of his departure in August, Ivor Frischknecht points to the role the agency played in bringing down the costs of large scale solar as ARENA’s greatest achievement.
SMA launching new multi string battery inverter
SMA says its new product will offer digital services such as monitoring and automatic notifications to perform maintenance as well as offering an emergency supply system. According to analysts, the varied applications of new inverters signal an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Sonnen secures €60 million investment from Shell Ventures
Germany-based PV-storage provider sonnen has closed a new funding round from a group of investors led by Shell Ventures. Sonnen has already began to draw on the funds as it continues to expand market shares in the U.S. and in Australia. Shell Ventures is now a major sonnen investor and future cooperation agreement has been agreed to.
