Policy

In pursuit of its ambitious 2025 solar goal of 20 GW of installed capacity, Taiwan continues to be an attractive market for foreign companies and investors.

At the 21st AEF, held last week in Lisbon. pv magazine had two journalists on the ground and here reports on five key findings.

The world’s biggest solar market is on track for an unsubsidized future but policymakers continue to grapple with grid planning. A report by the German Energy Agency has offered suggestions on how China’s approach to grid design could be tweaked to ensure priority dispatch for PV while slashing administrative costs and reining in renewable energy losses.

This year’s New Energy Outlook report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts renewables can keep us on track for less than two degrees of global heating for the next decade. But after that, other technologies will have to do their bit.

Scottish consultancy Wood Mackenzie has raised its 2019 forecast with Florida and Texas starting to deliver on their potential as the U.S. solar market returns to growth.

More than a quarter of global electricity is generated from renewables, with solar the third largest source according to an annual overview drafted by global policy network REN21. Despite a year-on-year fall, solar accounted for the majority of generation capacity additions last year. But a lack of decarbonization policies across the heating, cooling and transport sectors puts a patchy energy transition in prospect.

Pope Francis held a closed door meeting at the Academy of Sciences with the CEOs of oil firms and investment firms to address climate change, with a group committing to support an “economically meaningful” carbon price.

Reports about a leaked document suggest that Germany, Italy, Greece and Slovakia have joined a group of EU member states that support a carbon neutrality bill. Germany refused to support such plans in March, but with political support for the German Green Party skyrocketing, Chancellor Angela Merkel is likely to revise her government’s position. With Germany now on the ticket, a plan could be finalized at some point this year.

The Trump administration is acknowledging global demand for clean energy and energy storage with the US State Department’s new strategy.

The €5.4 billion program is expected to spur new growth in large scale PV while also providing incentives for rooftop systems. Originally scheduled for January, the country’s first technology neutral clean energy auctions – which will provide additional incentives EV charging-linked projects – may be held in the months ahead.