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The PV business of the Japanese corporation is again the villain, as the conglomerate’s Life and Environment Group posts the only first-half business loss among otherwise impressive figures. The solar division has issued a profit warning.

Solar trade lobby group the STA has voiced its disapproval after Chancellor Philip Hammond yesterday announced plans to ease the tax burden on workers but had nothing to offer an industry which has seen a 95% fall in installations in three years.

The South Australian government has inaugurated its landmark $100 million Home Battery Scheme, which will subsidize the cost of buying a home energy storage system for up to 40,000 South Australian households. A nine-week priority period has been given to locally made battery systems, with Germany’s sonnen as the first provider to enjoy this benefit.

Blockchain innovator WePower and Estonian transmission system operator Elering have partnered to tokenize the Estonian grid using an Ethereum blockchain. The project is pilot, but its initiators say it could provide tangible data for bringing the technology to markets worldwide.

Chinese polysilicon producer GCL-Poly Energy Holdings yesterday announced plans to increase the production capacity of its new factory, currently under construction in Xinjiang, China, to 60,000 metric tonnes (MT) per year. Accordingly, the company expects total investment in the project to increase to around $862 million.

New research from institutes at the London School of Economics has found a significant gap between what countries declared they would be doing in compliance with the Paris Agreement, and what they have translated into national law three years later. As officials from around the world will flock to Poland next month to negotiate the implementation pathway of the Paris Agreement, this and other new studies draw a dark picture of current performance.

French energy giant EDF has acquired a 50% stake in off-grid developer BBOXX’s operation in Togo. The two will work together to boost access to electricity in the West African country, according to EDF, and the partnership is the first step, with plans to extend cooperation to more countries in Africa.

Reporting from the first Future PV Roundtable in India, pv magazine learned about the technological innovation that will drive tomorrow’s PV arrays.

The global vertical integration of the PV tracker industry is accelerating, as players seek to build organizations that can provide manufacturing and support in multiple markets simultaneously. These partnerships tend to connect intellectual property assets with global manufacturing capability and construction and engineering teams that have the financial wherewithal to pursue international markets. The trend also is driving product line expansion, as in the case of Nextracker’s offering of energy storage as an integrated part of its tracker design.

The German PV equipment manufacturer has signed two letters of intent (LoI) for joint ventures with companies from Saudi Arabia at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Forum. The company declined to comment on the current political situation.