Policy

Solar trade lobby group the STA has voiced its disapproval after Chancellor Philip Hammond yesterday announced plans to ease the tax burden on workers but had nothing to offer an industry which has seen a 95% fall in installations in three years.

The South Australian government has inaugurated its landmark $100 million Home Battery Scheme, which will subsidize the cost of buying a home energy storage system for up to 40,000 South Australian households. A nine-week priority period has been given to locally made battery systems, with Germany’s sonnen as the first provider to enjoy this benefit.

Blockchain innovator WePower and Estonian transmission system operator Elering have partnered to tokenize the Estonian grid using an Ethereum blockchain. The project is pilot, but its initiators say it could provide tangible data for bringing the technology to markets worldwide.

New research from institutes at the London School of Economics has found a significant gap between what countries declared they would be doing in compliance with the Paris Agreement, and what they have translated into national law three years later. As officials from around the world will flock to Poland next month to negotiate the implementation pathway of the Paris Agreement, this and other new studies draw a dark picture of current performance.

The latest report from North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center finds a surge in proposed fees for distributed generation solar customers, as increasingly complicated structures are proposed to replace net metering.

In an open letter to the European Council, energy industry representatives have criticized EU legislation, which only considers cookies from websites and apps, but neglects the energy industry. Smart energy management businesses could run into serious complications if the EU prevents them from processing data from EV, gensets, and batteries, they argue.

Despite political hurdles in key markets including China, India and Japan, Asia remains highly active. This year, 59 GW of solar is expected to be installed and due to further system price declines, a phase-out of subsidy schemes can be offset.

The Norwegian polysilicon producer posted an EBITDA loss of $6.1 million for the third quarter of 2018, as it continues to struggle with low demand and prices. Revenue for the company’s solar materials segment fell almost 70% on the previous quarter.

The Chinese manufacturer – which is gambling on a big rebound in global appetite for the raw material for PV panels materializing soon – will devote all of its $143m solar subsidy income to paying off a daunting amount of borrowing.

Big players such as Acme, ReNew, Adani, Azure, Hero Future and Aditya Birla Solar are likely to stay away from procurement which requires 3 GW annual manufacturing commitment, says industry insider Gopal Lal Somani.