Global PV markets

The Germany solar incentive debate continues. While it was announced last week that there are plans to introduce a feed-in tariff (FIT) cap on photovoltaic modules, yet another proposal has suggested that only 80 percent of fed-in solar electricity should receive a tariff.

Ever clearer signals are emerging that Germany’s Federal Government is planning a new type of cap for solar subsidies. According to the latest plans, only a yearly electricity yield of between 800 and 900 kilowatt (kW) hours per kW peak will qualify for a tariff. Such a rule would, above all, benefit Chinese module and inverter suppliers.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania are suffering from too much of a good thing. The two northeastern U.S. states have an oversupply of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates, also called SRECs. How they solve the problem will be instructive to utility boards, load-serving entities (LSEs), the solar industry; and governments, environmentalists, and electricity customers worldwide.

New research has revealed that while forecasts for the photovoltaic manufacturing equipment industry are depressing, there is a 20 gigawatt (GW) opportunity to replace aging equipment over the next four years.

As was announced yesterday, the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has proposed yet more changes to the country’s photovoltaic feed-in tariffs (FITs). While the move has been described as a “huge step forward”, the industry says the impending tariff reductions will be “destructive”.

The PV Legal project has found that while positive progress has been made in reducing bureaucratic barriers to photovoltaic implementation, there are still many in place, which continue to hinder development. Grid connection was highlighted as the biggest bottleneck.

In a bid to make the U.K. photovoltaic feed-in tariffs (FITs) more “predictable”, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has put forward a number of reforms. “Transparency, longevity and certainty” are said to be key to the new scheme, which has been inspired by Germany’s tariff structure.

The traditionally semi-nomadic communities residing in southern Israel’s Negev desert have been the subject of disputes involving land, poverty and access for some time. A wave of initiatives to encourage villages to gain official recognition status, in order to profit from covering privately owned land with ground-mounted photovoltaic systems, is providing one method of aiding negotiations, despite the thorny social issues that come with them.

Idea Polysilicon Company (IPC) has selected Germany’s centrotherm SiTec GmbH to supply basic engineering services and the technology concept for its new 10,000 ton polysilicon factory, to be located in Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu.

According to one research company, the photovoltaic inverter industry experienced a “record” year in 2011, with shipments increasing by up to 15 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, a second has reported that growth actually declined by one percent from 2010.