Opinion & Analysis

Without globally unified standards in waste management, the risk from toxic materials such as lead will become increasingly important.

After several years of weak solar demand growth in Europe, compared to the historical highs of 2011, installations are expected to surge by 88% to reach a new installation record of 23 GW in 2019, writes Cormac Gilligan, research manager at IHS Markit. A range of favorable macro conditions have coalesced this year to reignite the market.

Back in June, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) granted Section 201 tariff exemptions to bifacial cells and modules, but reversed the decision on Oct. 28. Two weeks after the reversal, the U.S. Court of International Trade issued a temporary order against the withdrawal of the bifacial exemption. An investigation is now underway, with the first hearing taking place on Dec. 5.

By the end of 2018, China was home to around one third of global cumulative PV capacity, with around 175 GW of operational PV systems. In the context of China’s power sector, writes Frank Haugwitz of Asia Europe Clean Energy Advisory, the cumulative installed capacity makes up 9% of the total existing power generation capacity and contributed approximately 2.7% to total electricity generation.

With its trade wars, exclusions from tariffs, reversals of exclusions, and stays of reversals of exclusions – in addition to the repeal of the Clean Air Act and potential changes to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act – the U.S. solar market is anything but boring, writes SPV Market Research’s Paula Mints.

The European Green Deal needs better and longer-lasting products, and that includes solar panels, says ECOS, the environmental NGO specialising in ecodesign and standardisation.

The outlook for growth in Vietnam’s renewables sector is positive, writes Daine Loh, research analyst at Fitch Solutions. And the solar segment is one of the key drivers of this impressive growth. Vietnam still has substantial untapped solar power potential. Coupled with an increasingly supportive regulatory environment, and an expected surge in electricity consumption over the next decade, the country’s renewables sector is poised for a new dawn. And this will bring substantial opportunities for investors.

For the last three decades, China has been on an economic and technological growth path unequaled in size and duration. The country’s government is playing an active role in shaping the global digital economy, serving as one of its biggest backers and building a world-class infrastructure to support digitalization, by acting as an investor, solar power-developer – both terrestrial and in space – and consumer.

On Oct. 29, China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) released cumulative connection data for the first nine months of 2019, when China installed just under 16 GW. This breaks down as 52% distributed generation projects and 48% ground-mount installations. The figure represents a decrease of 54% for the first three quarters compared to 2018. Numbers for the third quarter of 2019 were lower than anticipated in China, confirming what the IHS Markit PV Market Trend Survey for China announced in September. It indicated that a large part of third-quarter PV demand had been postponed to the fourth quarter. Participants still expect a large increase in demand in the fourth quarter, but are increasingly pessimistic about the size of the Chinese market this year.

Dec. 3rd, 2019, Shanghai, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) holds its annual conference, the BNEF Summit Shanghai 2019, in Ritz-Carlton Pudong. More than 300 experts of renewable energy industry from China and other countries of the world joined the meeting.

PV Magazine had an interview with Mr. Rongfang Yin, executive vice president of Trina Solar, about Trina’s business and view.