Markets & Policy
In highly regulated energy markets, policy decisions can make or break new technologies, strategies, and even entire industries.
Support from policymakers, in the form of procurement exercises, priority dispatch, tax incentives and a wealth of other instruments, has been vital to the global solar industry’s success, and new mechanisms to support growth in energy storage are an increasingly important part of the story today.
Latest News
Middle market momentum
The rollback of policies favoring renewable energy deployment in the United States is contributing to an energy affordability crisis in many communities, according to Jon Powers, president of Clean Capital, a US independent power producer (IPP) active in the distributed generation segment. He spoke with pv magazine to warn fellow industry veterans that now is the time to ramp up solar deployment advocacy as elections loom and energy prices become a bipartisan issue.
Germany approves rules for storage, bidirectional charging
Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) has approved rules for the market integration of electricity storage systems and charging points (MiSpeL), allowing batteries to combine renewable and grid electricity while preserving support for eligible renewable power.
Japan tightens grid access as battery queue reaches 172 GW
Japan now requires generators, including battery developers, to prove rights to their sites to keep a grid connection, as regulators move to curb capacity hoarding in a battery queue that far outruns the less than 1 GW of grid-scale storage actually connected.
‘I have become less tolerant of the high-five lad culture’
This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Liz Cammack, CEO of UK’s Cammack Consultancy Ltd. She says diversity and intentional inclusion are essential to innovation, requiring leaders to look beyond familiar talent pools, challenge bias with evidence, and build teams with genuinely different skills and perspectives. Drawing on her own career, mentors and experiences, she encourages women to reject cultures that limit them, embrace every opportunity to learn, and build strong networks that help others succeed too.
Chinese PV Industry Brief: Inner Mongolia advances 5.5 GW solar-desertification program
Inner Mongolia has approved a 5.5 GW solar and desertification-control program spanning the Ulan Buh and Tengger deserts. The projects will combine utility-scale PV development with the restoration of about 14,667 hectares of desertified land.
Spanish public-procurement software company Sondeva has launched Sondeva Renewables, a search platform that aggregates renewable energy project applications published in Spain’s Official State Gazette (BOE) and 14 regional official gazettes. The platform allows users to search projects by technology, administrative stage, autonomous community, installed capacity, hybridization, location and other criteria. Each project entry retains a …
