Markets

The U.S. state of California is well on the way to overachieving its 2020 aim to generate 33 percent of its electricity from renewables, in fact by almost double. Of this, photovoltaics accounts for nearly half. There are issues, however, such as interconnection and grid infrastructure, which still need to be ironed out.

According to a new study, many photovoltaic systems bigger than 10 kilowatts (kW) achieved grid parity with commercial retail electricity prices in 2011. This has resulted in a spike in projects and, thus, jobs. Both declining costs and the state’s favorable policies are said to be driving growth.

As some companies layoff staff in an attempt to contain costs, U.S. flexible CIGS manufacturer, Solopower is searching for staff for its Oregon fab’s expansion.

Germany’s parliament today held the first round of meetings aimed at amending the photovoltaic incentives under the country’s Renewable Energy Act (EEG). As expected, the opposition rejected the new proposals. The CDU and FDP also agreed to rethink fast tracking tariff cuts.

In an interview, Seethapathy Chander, from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) talks to pv magazine about the photovoltaic investment situation in Asia, falling project costs and emerging markets. Overall, he believes costs will, on average, sink to just US$0.09 per kilowatt hour (/kWh) across Asia, and that Uzbekistan will become a major market.

Capitalism prevailed over party politics this week, as the U.S. Congress moved swiftly to pass legislation that would enable the Department of Commerce to continue applying countervailing duty (CVD) law to non-market economies (NMEs), such as China and Vietnam.

The Sharp Corporation, in partnership with the Indonesia Government, will develop 100 megawatts (MW) worth of photovoltaic projects in Indonesia. It will also work on a 2.4 MW solar system in Japan.

Three solar companies have been declared to be leading the pack in terms of the environment, their communities and their employees. The B Lab, a nonprofit organization that assesses companies’ impact environmentally and socially, highlighted three solar installers yesterday as leaders across three areas of assessment.

Suntech expects to see “intense competition” in 2012, following a shaky 12 months for most solar companies. In the fourth quarter (Q4) and full year (FY) 2011, the Chinese photovoltaic manufacturer suffered significant losses. Meanwhile, this year, Q1 shipments are expected to decline.

Chinese photovoltaic module manufacturer, JinkoSolar, has posted a net loss of US$58.3 million for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2011. The company attributed the poor result to prices falling faster than anticipated. JinkoSolar did however manage to post full-year income of US$43.4 million, a decrease of 69 percent from 2010.