Markets

In its latest renewable energy attractiveness indices, Ernst & Young has announced the solar market is preparing for a shift from a “dominant” German market to other smaller hotspots. It added that Spain “remains largely in the doldrums”, with the wind industry largely thought to have won out over solar.

Climate change firm Emergent Ventures International (EVI) has launched an initiative to aggregate solar power projects to help developers in India earn carbon credits from the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which aims to reduce emissions through the deployment of clean technologies.

In what has been termed the first “systematic and comparative analysis” of the effects of regenerative energy technologies on the output of value, the German Institute for Ecological Economic Research (IÖW) has concluded that photovoltaics (PV) contributed 36 percent to Germany’s sum total last year.

According to a media report, BWE (German WindEnergy Association) President Hermann Albers has demanded that the solar sector demonstrates photovoltaic’s (PV) potential for reduced costs. In his view, saving the EEG (Renewable Energy Sources Act) is at stake.

The global photovoltaics (PV) market is making positive progress, with new research released by solar energy market research company Solarbuzz showing that PV demand “soared” by 54 percent in the second quarter of this year (Q2’10), to 3.82 gigawatts (GW).

The global photovoltaics (PV) market is forecast to exceed 16 gigawatts (GW) this year, said IMS Research, with demand for PV systems predicted to almost double. It went on to say that the top five markets will account for more than 13 GW, but growth is expected to slowdown next year.

The Ontario photovoltaics (PV) market will reach 694 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity by next year, including 186 MW of Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) projects, according to a study carried out by Canada-based ClearSky Advisors.

Global building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) installation capacity is expected to grow more than ten-fold in the next six years, with figures reaching as high as 2.4 gigawatts (GW) by 2016, according to Pike Research.

Using carbon nanotubes – hollow tubes of carbon atoms – Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemical engineers say they have found a way to concentrate solar energy 100 times more than a regular photovoltaic (PV) cell. Such nanotubes could reportedly form antennas that capture and focus light energy, potentially allowing much smaller and more powerful solar arrays, according to Chinese news agency, xinhuanet.

The largest solar power station in the Czech Republic opened on Wednesday in the village of Veprek, some 20 kilometers north of Prague, according to Chinese news agency, xinhuanet.