Markets & Policy

June saw the highest amount of newly installed solar PV capacity in the country. With solar remaining far behind the government’s annual 2.5 GW target, PV subsidies will remain unchanged in August. In the first half of the year, the country installed just 513 MW of PV capacity.

A merger agreement has been approved by Tesla’s board, but is still awaiting a vote by shareholders of both parties.

The company aims to increase investment in R&D and deepen its focus on innovation in its PV inverter and energy storage lineups.

Innogy, RWE’s soon-to-be publicly listed renwables, grid and infrastructure unit, is set to deliver the lion’s share of group revenue this year.

Solar has the biggest share in the Ukrainian renewable energy mix. By the end of 2016, the country is aiming to have more than 570 MW of PV plants installed.

In total 84 bids were presented for the largest electricity auction to be held in Chile to date. In the block for daytime electricity supply 1,000 gigawatt-hours will be offered. Blocks for various hours and continual supply are both offered.

The Clean Energy Standard does not appear substantively different than earlier policy drafts, and includes a bailout for aging nuclear power plants.

SolarWorld has increased its Q2 2016 shipments 39% YoY, to 342 MW, in 2016. Revenues increased almost 30% for the quarter, to €222 million ($246 million), while achieving an EBIT profit of €20.5 ($22.7 million) million.

Profits from the Kyocera business unit that includes its solar operations have slumped more than 50% in Q2, as a result of softening demand from the Japanese market. The company booked revenues of JPY45.6 billion ($440 million) in Q2 2016 from Applied Ceramics, a decrease of 13.2% QoQ.