China entering post-FIT era with solid prospects
The Chinese government is planning to phase out FITs and subsidies for all kinds of PV installation by the end of this year, according to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association. The trade body, however, expects strong recovery for domestic solar demand over the next five years, beginning in the second half of 2020.
Covid-19 weekly round-up: Ups and downs from the US residential market and one Swedish city tries to attract Europe’s best and brightest
Industry body SolarPower Europe is trying to stay bullish about the lingering effects as the continent starts to come out of lockdown and one analyst has predicted a healthy large scale solar market will carry the US through the crisis.
Albania’s first floating PV project now under construction
Norway’s Statkraft is building a 2 MW floating PV array, first announced a year and a half ago, at its 72 MW hydropower plant in Albania’s Elbasan region. Norwegian floating PV specialist Ocean Sun has agreed to supply tech for the €2 million plant.
PV-electrochemical water-splitting for hydrogen production
A German research team has developed a new photovoltaic-electrochemical device for alkaline water electrolysis. The prototype has an initial solar‐to‐hydrogen efficiency of approximately 7.7%.
Global solar capacity may reach 1,448 GW in 2024
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.
Plans unveiled for 1 GW solar-storage-hydrogen facility in China
Chinese developer Panda Green says it has negotiated exclusive rights to develop a $1.41 billion project in Xinjiang which will feature PV and photothermal generation, hydrogen production and energy storage.
A look at China’s PV poverty alleviation policy
A global research team says that China’s PV poverty alleviation scheme has ramped up disposable income levels in the country’s poorest counties. The Chinese government aims to install more than 10 GW of PV, especially in the most impoverished parts of eastern China, to help 2 million people by the end of this year.
Hydrogen storage in salt caverns
Researchers in Germany have identified salt caverns as a feasible and flexible solution for hydrogen storage. They also revealed that Europe has the potential to inject hydrogen in bedded salt deposits and salt domes, with a total storage capacity of 84.8 PWh.
Cash-strapped developer SFCE dependent on buyer goodwill for $66m project sell-off
SFCE is scrambling to keep creditors at bay and has been unable to guarantee more than half the windfall it expects from selling off 140 MW of Chinese project capacity will actually be paid.
Analyst expects ‘unprecedented’ consolidation of Chinese solar industry
PV manufacturers unable to live with proposed new quality guidelines and project developers alike are set to be squeezed out by the state in the world’s biggest solar market, according to Frank Haugwitz, who has compiled a market update as preparations for the next five-year plan gather pace.
