Manufacturing

The Catalyst Program aims to marry solar industry problems with existing tools and datasets. The headline $1m prize fund will be shared across four steps of the new program.

Five Chinese producers offered an EU-style minimum price commitment to try to ward off AD duties in India. The Indian authorities said such an arrangement would be ‘impractical to monitor.’

Seen by the partners as another step towards energy alternatives for remote mining operations, the project will initially offset up to 20% of the existing grid demand and drastically reduce diesel usage.

The market is on the path for growth but still faces major hurdles: European equipment and inverter manufacturers in particular face intensifying Chinese competition, while the country’s ambitious targets won’t be reached unless the government adapts its distributed PV power policy.

Despite some lower estimates by industry sources, IHS is standing by its earlier forecast for distributed PV installations in China this year.

Budgeted at $180 million, the two projects will generate some 254 gigawatt hours a year — the equivalent of 143,000 Chilean households.

The solar project, located at the Changoi Tea Farm, is one of the largest in East Africa. The installation marks British solar company’s growing international activities in emerging markets.

More Chinese equipment and inverter manufacturers presented their products than previous years amidst growing optimism that China’s young distributed PV power market will soon take off.

An influx of new capital for centralized and distributed generation is boosting strong growth. PV systems are increasingly attracting investments from installers and utility companies as well as institutional investors, private and municipalities.

Barclays provided a £15 million loan towards the financing of three new solar parks in southwest England developed by British Solar Renewables.