Policy

“Unprecedented” appears to be a frequently used term to describe the Covid-19 crisis that the global economy, our societies and healthcare systems are now facing. And while outbreaks of severe and potentially life-threatening diseases have occurred at various stages in the modern age, our globally connected reality today means that the coronavirus could have impacts that are truly without precedent.

Rio Tinto Chairman Simon Thompson is urging governments across the world to take “urgent” action on climate change despite the twin evils of Covid-19 and economic recession. The call comes amid criticism that Rio Tinto’s own emission reductions schemes are too weak.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Action will permit 220 self-consumption projects with generation capacities of no more than 1 MW to be connected immediately. The usual long-winded permitting process has been side-stepped as the government seeks to enable financially-stricken enterprises to benefit from lower energy bills during the public health crisis.

Even as global PV forecasts fall, tax equity dries up and unemployment rises, investor Jim Spano believes the right type of government stimulus could not only help the solar industry recover – but drive it to new heights.

Industry body SolarPower Europe hosted a webinar to consider how the global public health crisis will affect solar. While workers and materials are still available, industry experts are concerned about the state of the financial sector. Banks could become more conservative and raise the cost of capital for renewables projects.

Grenergy was this week due to ship 400,000 face masks to Latin America as European developers today voiced a fear project finance will become increasingly difficult to find as the coronavirus lockdown continues.

With its sonnenVPP, German battery company Sonnen wants to improve the efficiency of virtual power plants which it says can offer primary balancing energy from houses with solar and storage and can operate up to 90% more cost-effectively.

Griffith University scientists have unlocked a catalytic process to enhance the breakdown of water into hydrogen and oxygen and bring Australia a step nearer clean, efficient hydrogen fuel.

With the introduction of guided feed-in prices for different types of electricity by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the world’s largest solar market has its PV subsidy policy finalized two months earlier than last year.

pv magazine rounds up the latest Covid-19-related stories likely to affect the world of solar and energy storage.