Markets

The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund will invest in non-listed infrastructure, with the government stressing such commitments will not be a climate policy measure but an investment strategy. The fund had already announced an intent to gradually divest holdings in oil and gas companies and related projects.

More than 11 million PV inverters will be shipped in 2019 alone, and most of these will be connected to a software platform and controlled by the inverter companies. This creates an opportunity for suppliers to create new models and revenue sources, writes Cormac Gilligan, research and analysis manager at IHS Markit. And indeed, in recent years inverter suppliers have been rapidly developing ‘Internet of things’ software platforms to take advantage of this.

With competition on the module market as cutthroat as ever, manufacturers are increasingly looking to emphasize the quality and reliability of their products and services as a differentiator. pv magazine investigates what’s behind some of these claims, and the move from manufacturers to more sophisticated quality assurance methods.

A rooftop PV system will provide hydrogen through an electrolyzer. The green gas can then be mixed with natural gas to fire the factory’s furnaces.

Celebrating its one year anniversary during Solarex, Turkish monitoring and AI startup Solarify is looking to reduce false alarms from utility scale PV projects. Based out of an incubator in Ege University in the coastal city of Izmir, Solarify is on the hunt for international partners.

In an exclusive interview held during the meeting “Experience of Uruguay: Business Hub of Latin America”, organized by the Uruguayan Embassy in Berlin, the country’s Minister of Energy, Guillermo Moncecchi, spoke about the future of solar in the country’s energy mix, while also recognizing its great potential by virtue of the fall in panel prices. Although its share is currently very limited and there are no prospects for large growth in the short term, solar power currently has good opportunities for development in distributed generation, as electricity prices are constantly rising. As for large-scale projects, new auctions could be held again in the coming years, but not immediately. The country, however, is still listed among the countries with the highest share of renewables in the world, with a precentage close to 98%.

No more than four hours per day, did the 160 households enjoy energy supply. This has had negative impacts on the economic development of the islands. With support from the ADB, the island inhabitants now have 24h supply of clean energy, and new billing methods that suit the economic realities of poorer households.

As the Turkish market cools as the result of a policy vacuum, rumors are now circulating that its developers and installers are being hampered by restricted module imports. While some exceptions apply, claims are the measures, described as “blatant protectionism” by some are damaging the market.

EnergySage’s quarterly intel report also showed Enphase winning back U.S. market share from SolarEdge, falling costs and bigger rooftop PV systems.

The global PV market will probably grow by as much as 25% in 2019, after sagging to a double-digit rate of expansion last year, with annual capacity additions likely to hit 129 GW, IHS Markit says in a new report.