Spain’s Genera event dominated by PV as it draws the crowds
Spain’s most important renewable energy fair is becoming increasingly about solar. After a decade of slim pickings, last year’s event promised better times and, if this year’s show didn’t completely deliver, that’s because elections loom large.
Hanwha Q-Cells sues Jinko, Longi and REC for patent infringement
The Korean solar manufacturer has lodged a patent infringement lawsuit against Jinko and REC in Germany, and two more against the same companies plus Longi in the U.S. Hanwha Q Cells claims its three rivals have used its patented solar cell passivation technology to increase the performance of their products.
France changes tender rules for innovative PV
After receiving approval from the European Commission in November, the French government has now published new rules for tenders assigning a fixed tariff to solar projects that use innovative technologies such as new cells and modules among others.
Greece’s first joint PV-wind auction will tender 600 MW of capacity next month
Energy regulator RAE has announced the country’s first joint solar and wind energy auction, which will be held on April 15.
Wallonia’s grid fee for prosumers will apply only to new systems
The controversial charge for residential PV systems will apply only to installations connected to the grid after July 1, and will come into force from 2020. Wallonia has around 1.1 GW of installed solar capacity, most of it residential PV systems.
Floating PV offers alternative to grid outages in South Africa
A 60 kW floating array was deployed by New Southern Energy at the reservoir of a fruit farm near Franschhoek, in the Western Cape Province. A second phase of the project will also include storage.
Storage preferred to net metering in Indonesia as new rules prove ineffective
According to solar body the PPLSA, around 300 PV system owners have already gone off-grid as the tariff granted for surplus power under net metering was not attractive enough. Several barriers are preventing net metering taking hold, including an obligation to either use locally made equipment or pay more to re-certify imported modules and inverters.
Netherlands’ ECN achieves 30.2% efficiency for bifacial tandem cell based on perovskite
The cell was created by applying a newly developed perovskite cell on top of an industrial bifacial crystalline silicon version. The resulting cell is said to better harvest sunlight, as one unit is optimized for high energy photons and the other absorbs low energy particles.
Analysis: Siemens’ entry into distributed generation works for Kaco too
Having launched a residential storage system, the German giant announced plans last week to acquire inverter maker Kaco and start a new smart infrastructure business from April 1. In light of those moves, pv magazine spoke to IHS Markit’s Cormac Gilligan about the new kid, albeit huge, on the block.
India goes into overdrive with 6 GW tender plans announced in five days
SECI, the organization responsible for coordinating India’s push for 100 GW of new solar capacity by 2022, has had a busy week. But, as last year illustrated, tenders alone are not always a guarantee of new generation assets.
