Germany: Glimmer of hope for First Solar's Frankfurt operations
By the end of the year, First Solar Inc. will stop photovoltaic production in Germany’s Frankfurt Oder. However, plant management has announced that there is now investor interest and hopes for a solution in Q1 2013.
Tenesol starts work on 2 PV plants in South Africa
Photovoltaic activity is heating up in South Africa. The latest news sees Tenesol undertaking work on two projects worth 33 MW in the Northern Cape Province.
JinkoSolar plans 200 MW PV plant in China
JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with state-owned Jinchuan Group Co., Ltd, under which it will develop a 200 MW photovoltaic plant in Chinas Jinchang, Gansu Province.
WTO confirms Ontarios FITs breach rules
In a panel report issued yesterday, December 19, the World Trade Organization (WTO) confirms that Ontarios renewable energy FIT, which includes a domestic content requirement, breaches WTO rules.
US: Meaningful improvements in PV system pricing
GTM Researchs Andrew Krulewitz details the factors that contributed to price declines in each U.S. photovoltaic market segments in Q4 2012.
Industry shakeout filters out untested PV technologies
Only the lowest cost and most commercially viable PV technologies will end up surviving through the brutal PV shakeout phase of 2012, writes Finlay Colville, vice president of NPD Solarbuzz.
Battery market development will be guided by step-wise innovation
Pike Research’s Brittany E. Gibson is confident that emerging cleantech markets for batteries, especially for transportation and stationary applications, will be viable new markets in ten years.
US: Red tape holds back solar installer market
New data has revealed that solar installers in the U.S. are being slowed down by red tape, which is pushing up the installed price. The survey data was collected by solar financers Clean Power Finance, which gathered responses from installers across 12 states.
2012 utility-scale PV installations top 8.5 GW
According to the latest figures from Wiki-Solar, utility-scale photovoltaic installations have reached 8.5 GW this year, thus more than doubling the 2.3 GW recorded in 2011.
Community solar model rolled out in Australia
A second commercial scale community solar project has been launched in Australia. The 400 kW rooftop installation will be installed in Sydney and is being organized by Embark.
