India: Punjab state reaches 1.5 GW of allocated solar PV
Punjab’s New and Renewable Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia confirms that the state now has projects amounting to 1,550 MW at various stages of development; a 172-fold increase in just three years.
Swiss team develops low-temperature deposition for transparent perovskite
Researchers have developed a method to produce perovskite PV cells at low temperature, which does not result in a device exhibiting hysteretic current-voltage behavior. The technique employs a semi-transparent indium oxide rear electrode and when incorporated into a CIGS tandem device has achieved 20.5% conversion efficiency.
Ireland's solar landscape could reach 3.7 GW by 2030, says report
Report produced by KPMG and commissioned by the Irish Solar Energy Association foresees a potential nationwide solar sector reaching 3.7 GW by 2030 with just EUR 670 million of support.
Low utilization at Yingli results in $581 million Q3 write down
Chinas Yingli Green Energy continues to be plagued by low utilization rates and will book a RMB3,694.2 million (US$581.3 million) “non-cash impairment charge on long lived assets” in Q3.
Sonnenbatterie launches solar+storage community platform
German specialized solar battery manufacturer Sonnenbatteries has unveiled its new concept of a virtual network that can pool solar+storage arrays and trade surplus energy on the wholesale market. The goal is to build a virtual community of solar+storage owners and to participate in peer-to-peer energy exchange and trading.
Brazil predicts 4.5 GW of installations through expanded net metering rules
A virtual net metering policy has been introduced and the project size cap has been increased to 5 MW. Under the new rules Brazil’s ANEEL expects 4.5 GW of renewable energy installations by 2024.
Saskatchewan sets 50% by 2030 renewable energy target
Saskatchewan’s plan to double its share of renewable energy generation will include procuring at least 60MW of utility-scale solar through auctions beginning in 2016.
Blue Earth picks up an all-star cast of executives
The solar developer has hired talent from SunEdison, Recurrent Energy and NRG Renew.
Australian offgrid push may leave unfair burden of grid costs
Encouraging households to add sufficient storage to their PV arrays to disconnect from the electricity grid may leave an unfair burden of high utility payments to those left connected. Ric Brazzale, the Managing Director of Green Energy Trading says that a large movement of households off the grid may be bad for consumers without necessarily doing anything for the environment.
Germany: LG Chem to supply batteries for Steags 90 MW energy storage project
LG Chem will supply Steag with six of its large-scale lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries for what will become the largest energy storage system project of its kind, when complete, in 2017. Steag is investing EUR 100 million in the 90 MW project.
