Balance of Systems

Things are hotting up in the tracker world as the desire to squeeze down the price per Watt of solar power intensifies. And the rise of the trackers is attracting some well-known businesses to buy their way into the field.

In a report which states utility-scale PV project development in France can cost as little as €600 per installed kilowatt, the CRE has made recommendations including factoring in transport and full supply chain costs into the calculation of how environmentally friendly solar panels are.

In December, pv magazine met SolaX Power president Li Xinfu and his team at the company’s headquarters in sprawling Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province. The region is a hotspot for the Chinese PV industry and SolaX belongs to the cutting edge of Chinese inverter and residential battery manufacturers.

Aiming to localize production across the electric vehicle value chain, the government wants to support battery manufacturing at a gigawatt-scale. The initial focus will be on large-scale module and pack assembly plants in the new fiscal year, followed by integrated cell manufacturing by 2021-22.

At the Solar Power Summit in Brussels today, the industry group said it is preparing to launch a supply-side oriented industrial policy for the PV sector in Europe. The manufacturing sector on the continent has been hard hit since 2012, and has been buffeted by a range of unfavorable policy decisions.

Following New Delhi-based Urja Global, Singapore’s Ojovati and another Delhi company – Avanze Inventive – have signed memoranda of understanding to manufactue lithium-ion cells and batteries, respectively, in the state.

Spain’s most important renewable energy fair is becoming increasingly about solar. After a decade of slim pickings, last year’s event promised better times and, if this year’s show didn’t completely deliver, that’s because elections loom large.

The Saudi energy company and Chinese inverter maker and comms firm will team up to use information and communications technology to improve the performance of the former’s PV plants.

The two companies entered a technological partnership in 2013 and three years ago the Brazilian company acquired the wind power business of its US peer.

The president last night announced he is hoping to arrange a meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to bring an end to the long-running trade stand-off between the two nations, provided further progress can be made in negotiations.