Eswatini 40 MW solar tender attracts 13 approved bidders
The regulator received 26 proposals overall for a project intended to make the kingdom less dependent on power imports from troubled South African utility Eskom.
20 MW solar-plus-storage project tender at Zimbabwe gold mine
Canadian business Caledonia Mining Corporation plc wants to build a power plant at its Blanket mine near Gwanda, in southern Zimbabwe.
Tesla unveils a bigger, better, simpler Solar Roof – at a 40% discount
Elon Musk has officially launched the third phase of his crusade to make a successful solar roof tile, with promises that this time it is going to be a success.
German supplier fields orders for 10 GW of PERC cell production lines in three months
RENA Technologies may struggle to feed the insatiable demand for production capacity in China fast enough and has welcomed orders worth ‘tens of millions of euros’ from three big clients.
Kalyon Enerji finds Chinese partner for 500 MW module fab in Turkey
The factory, backed by the Turkish government in September, was originally intended to be built with the support of Korean solar manufacturer Hanwha Q Cells. The new partner is China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC). Production is planned to start next year.
Bangladesh extends incentive scheme for domestic solar industry
PV manufacturers receive 10% of the value of their exported products as an incentive and the nation’s central bank has extended the program to cover this financial year. Bangladesh’s solar manufacturers have called for more, however, and point to more generous schemes to the west.
Runergy plans another 6 GW of mono PERC manufacturing capacity by 2022
The fact solar manufacturers in China are still aggressively expanding output illustrates the strength of global demand for PV even as hopes for a rebound in Chinese installations appear to have been groundless.
Political uncertainties and market speculation
After several years of stagnation, Spain has started to see a revival in its PV market, writes IHS Markit’s Maria Chea. The country’s newfound growth has been due to a combination of tender and private PPA projects, along with decreasing component costs.
EDF secures a slice of UK supermarket Tesco’s corporate solar plan
The French energy giant will provide supermarket Tesco with electricity from 17 rooftop PV installations and two wind farms for a renewables portfolio generation capacity of 59 MW. The groceries retailer has announced plans to install 187 solar rooftops.
Perovskite solar cells need proteins
A U.S. research team has used protein bacteriorhodopsin to improve the efficiency of what it called ‘bioperovskite’ solar cells. The scientists used Förster Resonance Energy Transfer to predict the strength of long-range excitonic transport between the perovskite and protein layers.
