Policy

Minister announces new-year changes to try and drive further PV adoption in the populous southeast Asian nation.

Analysts are weighing into the debate over the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s big solar plans, but pointing out even a partial victory would set the foundation for future solar triumphs.

In this interview with pv magazine, the president of integrated monocrystalline PV maker Longi Solar gives his perspective on market and policy changes in China, Europe and the United States, as well as giving an update on his company’s very rapid growth.

The final average price was slightly higher than that of the previous auction of the same kind. Successful bids were between €0.0386/kWh and €0.0515/kWh per kWh. Unlike the parallel wind energy tender, the tendered capacity was significantly oversubscribed, once again.

An investigation by mainland China regulators has found that subsidy payment delays in the northwest region of Ningxia are putting PV projects at risk of bankruptcy.

Rumors of a u-turn on energy policy in the White House have been substantiated by pv magazine’s enquiries, although the respite for renewables may prove temporary, thanks to another fossil fuel-friendly nomination by President Trump.

TSEC is planning to cut a fifth of its workforce as it changes focus to produce higher-efficiency PERC cells, against a backdrop of more generic products swamping the market because of a slowdown in the world’s biggest market.

Electrifying the global energy system with clean energy is the only way to reach the targets set by the Paris agreement on climate change and avoid the catastrophic scenarios outlined by the recent IPCC report. In an interview with pv magazine, Christian Breyer – Professor of Solar Economy at Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology – explains a 100% renewables model is not only technically feasible, but also the cheapest and safest option. With solar and storage at its core, the future energy system envisaged by Breyer and his team will not only stop coal, but also nuclear and fossil gas, while seeing solar reach a share of around 70% of power consumption by 2050. By that time, PV technology could cost a third of its current price.

The farming sector alone offers a potential $40bn marketplace, thanks to rice transplanting, pesticide spraying and grain harvesting – says the Council on Energy, Environment and Water thinktank.

For renewables to claim a more sizable share of the global energy mix, the adoption of energy storage would need to pick up pace and the rapidly increasing size of the EV fleet will offer a scalable way to ramp up such access, says Fitch Solutions.