All News

Renewable energy investment in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding China, will overtake spending on oil and gas exploration and production by 2020, finds Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy. And Australia is set to emerge as one of the leading investment destinations.

At the beginning of the decade, Zhengrong Shi, at that time founder and CEO of Suntech, was one of the most influential people in solar. After the Chinese module manufacturer ran into troubles in 2013, he had to go and, thus, slipped out of the spotlight. Now he is back as founder of Sunman, a company specializing in lightweight crystalline modules using polymer composite materials instead of glass. pv magazine caught up with him at Intersolar Europe 2019.

With Narendra Modi’s government stunning pollsters with another huge win, the solar industry expects renewable power momentum to be maintained with steps including anti-dumping duty on solar module imports, a national policy for rooftop solar and an emphasis on easing private-sector participation in the power sector.

Chinese PV manufacturer Trina Solar today announced it has achieved a new efficiency record of 24.58% for a cell based on n-type monocrystalline TOPCon technology. The record has been confirmed by the ISFH CalTeC laboratory in Germany. Meanwhile, fellow giant Canadian Solar also hit a new milestone with its cast mono technology, reaching 22.28% conversion efficiency on a 157mm² wafer.

Traditional, centrist groupings the social democrats and conservatives lost ground in the weekend’s elections but while green parties gained seats, talk of a green wave washing over the continent appears to have been exaggerated.

In the first five months of the year, 16 solar projects with generation capacities larger than 99 MW were approved by the Colombian authorities. One of the projects may reach a 700 MW capacity, another has 240 MW and five more can generate up to 200 MW as around 3.55 GW of PV capacity has been added to the national pipeline.

While the world’s biggest solar manufacturers are confident there are plenty of alternative markets for a rising volume of panel exports, the message spelled out by first-quarter shipment figures is that protectionism works.

The International Energy Agency says more than 2 million electric vehicles hit the road last year, to take the total to more than 5 million. The agency has stressed the importance of public policy, charging infrastructure and a fall in costs for continued EV uptake, and says up to 43 million EVs could be sold in 2030.

In a series of statements to pv magazine, South African panel manufacturer ARTsolar has explained why it recently filed a petition to request the introduction of import tariffs on solar modules from other countries. The company claims such a measure is needed to save real jobs and retain the technological expertise of the country’s PV industry.

The two companies have glued 230 square meters of solar film to the rough concrete surface of a grain silo in Donauwörth, Germany. The film is expected to generate approximately 6,700 kWh kilowatt-hours of solar power per year. Lechwerke and Heliatek want to open up new potential for the use of PV on other surfaces with the pilot project.