Markets & Policy

The Ukrainian market has emerged as rather fertile ground for project developers over the last two years, as a newly enacted law has eased uncertainty over the market’s future, with a quota-based auction system set to replace the country’s generous feed-in tariff scheme in 2020.

Although only two of the nine projects selected in the auction are for hybrid biomass-solar power plants with some storage, seven will rely on renewable energy sources. The largest selected project, however, is a 123 MW gas power plant in the city of Boa Vista.

The two Chinese companies will acquire 30% shares in each other’s respective wafer and silicon businesses and plan to purchase at least 75% of each other’s future output, as part of a complex mutual investment arrangement announced ahead of the SNEC PV Power Expo 2019.

At The smarter E Europe trade show, held in Munich in May, pv magazine was invited for another iteration of its Quality Roundtable events. Experts from manufacturing, project planning, finance and testing took the stage to inform the crowd on quality issues with modules, cables and inverters.

Mahindra Susten will retain a majority 51% stake in its Marvel Solren unit, which operates 16 MW of solar at four sites in India. It aims to jointly build up to 150 MW of capacity with the Japanese trading house by 2023.

The annual expansion of photovoltaics throughout the world surpassed the 100 GW mark last year. The multi-terawatt market is looming on the horizon and PV is becoming a “game changer” in the global energy system in five specific areas, according to a consortium of research institutes.

In a new interview in a series on renewable energy and geopolitics, Indra Overland describes the possible trajectory of China’s bid to become the world’s solar energy leader. After building a leading position in key technologies and manufacturing, China may find a potential partner in the European Union, especially if the U.S. government pushes forward with its trade war against Beijing, Overland says. Solar and renewables are also helping the country expand its influence in Southeast Asia, fuelling concerns among some of its neighbors, he adds.

Scatec Solar has connected the next part of its 400 MW tracking and bifacial PV plant to the grid in Egypt’s Benban complex. The entire project is set to fully come online throughout the second half of the year. Meanwhile, the company has also secured additional funding for a 33 MW solar project in Mali.

While market experts suggest solid-state battery technology will not play a significant role in the storage industry until 2025, one company may be leading the race. Blue Solutions, electrical energy storage award winner at The smarter E Europe in Munich, Germany, says it has developed the only commercialized solid-state lithium battery. pv magazine caught up with the company around the European trade show to discuss its award-winning technology and unique position in the market.

The Chinese electrical equipment giant will build the first project of Simec Energy Australia’s landmark $1 billion, 1 GW dispatchable renewable energy program in the state of South Australia.