Markets & Policy

IHS Markit’s analysts have mapped out what they are keeping an eye out for in the year ahead. Aside from higher installation figures, the number-crunchers predict a continued battle for multi-function in the hard-fought inverter segment and a potential watershed year for utility-scale storage.

Details are few at this stage, with a site for the big project still to be selected, although the Bangladeshi government has confirmed the tariff for electricity produced by the plant will be $0.095/kWh.

The legislation would enshrine a customer’s right to generate and store electricity as well as to connect to the grid without undue burden and would provide freedom from discriminatory fees and set compensation for battery power exports.

Unimpressed by last year’s China policy-related shenanigans, the inverter maker continued to grow at a rapid pace as it acquired storage, uninterruptable power supply (UPS) and e-mobility related businesses. Its full-year results place SolarEdge in a good position going into a more promising year, with solar installations expected to hit double-digit growth figures in many markets and reach 120 GW globally.

The Italian PV market grew 7% last year with new capacity additions of 437 MW. Of that figure, only about 47 MW was for installations larger than 1 MW – a clear sign rooftop PV is still driving demand.

The International Renewable Energy Agency has examined how common ground between sectors; digitalization; and technological innovation can transform the energy system and lower the cost of renewables. Storage technologies such as behind-the-meter applications, utility-scale storage and power-to-x are working in the right direction and much can be learned about digitalization from other sectors.

The Finnish PV equipment provider and the Lithuanian PV panel maker will manufacture IBC solar cells at Solitek’s factory in Vilnius with an initial production capacity of 60 MW.

As national elections approach, prime minister Narendra Modi has signed off a huge check to finance national programs to subsidize household and community PV and to drive solar pump deployment in the nation’s fields.

A few weeks out from the Energy Storage Europe conference and pv magazine is featuring the top ten developments in the field as our Energy Storage Highlights, selected by an independent jury of experts. Yesterday, we presented a ’70s revival of a ceramic high temperature battery.

Projects not encompassed by the new, central-subsidy-free, ‘grid-parity’ regime will be eligible to bid for a government subsidy. But, at a reported $446 million, the pot is not very big.