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… and it will be quite an effort. The U.K.’s grid operator, National Grid, released a new report on possible energy system transformation pathways, amidst growing public concern over climate change. Ramping carbon emissions reduction targets up from 80% to 100% prompts technical challenges. These can be overcome but will require full alignment of policy effort and individual awareness and decision making.

Overall, 31 renewable energy projects have pre-qualified for the final phase of the auction. The outcome of the procurement exercise will be announced on July 22. Around 300 MW of capacity will be allocated.

The African Development Bank is providing around $56 million to fund a program to bring electricity to around 900,000 households in sub-Saharan Africa by 2025. The financial institution will also provide African distributed energy service companies with critical technical guidance and credit enhancement.

In the first part of pv magazine‘s series on solar’s hidden champion markets, we take a look at Mexico. The country currently has 4 GW of total installed PV capacity, and overtook Chile as Latin America’s largest solar market by the end of 2018. But the cancellation of auctions and other negative signals from government could put a damper on things moving forward.

Japanese materials company Toray has announced plans to open a facility for manufacturing battery separator films for use in lithium-ion batteries. The factory is expected to begin operations in July 2021 and will increase Toray’s production material for the component by around 20%.

Western Australia-based solar glass developer ClearVue has signed a deal with Taiwanese thin-film solar module manufacturer BeyondPV to set up a dedicated production line for solar strip modules at its production facility in the city of Tainan.

Switzerland deployed 271 MW of PV in 2018. According to Swiss PV association Swissolar, the current levels of development are not enough to meet the targets set by the country’s 2050 energy strategy.

The massive Núñez de Balboa solar plant is planned to be installed in Usagre, near Badajoz, in the southern region of Extremadura, Spain. The funding comes to multinational utility Iberdrola after securing three PPAs for the project.

The Anglo-American company is the latest utility to enter the utility-scale solar and wind development space by closing on its acquisition of Geronimo Energy.

Scientists at Pennsylvania State University have developed a new class of perovskite materials, which they say exhibits unique properties that could have several implications for the development of perovskite solar cells, as well as other electronic applications.