Industry & Suppliers

Module producer RE Group will supply 120 – 150 MW of its high efficiency TwinPeak Series modules to solar lease provider Sunrun. The module deal is the largest of its kind for the REC TwinPeak series and demonstrates strong demand for high efficiency module concepts.

The Racking and mounting maker is adding substantial capacity in the U.S. state of Michigan, which will come online in February 2016.

Group founder and various management executives of the Taiwanese power management company are in Paris to actively support the goals of the conference and showcase Delta’s efforts in renewables, green buildings and energy conservation.

As part of the plan to liberalize its energy market, Japan will end tax breaks for commercial solar installations at the end of next March. A tax reform plan is expected this month. In other solar news, PV accounted for 3.3% of electricity production in Q3; and 750 applications have been submitted by hopefuls looking to enter the country’s energy market next April.

The Energy Information Administration of the DOE will begin including monthly estimates of small-scale distributed solar PV capacity and generation by state and sector; finds distributed PV accounted for 30% of electricity in September.

NextEra Energy will install 17 MW of solar PV at three military bases in Hawaii. Construction is slated for February, with commercial operation expected by the end of 2016.

Kingfisher, owner of companies including B&Q and Screwfix, has announced a £50 million (around US$75 million) investment in renewables, the majority of which will be channeled into solar energy. The move is part of the company’s aim to become net positive by 2050.

Africa has pledged its support for renewables in Paris this week by announcing the launch of the African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI). The goal is to achieve universal access to energy on the continent. 10 GW of new and additional renewable energy capacity is planned by 2020, while the potential to generate 300 GW is expected by 2030.

It’s December, and do we have some gifts in store: from a comprehensive update of India’s solar market to a near-the-knuckle muck-rake of unscrupulous solar sales practices, it’s all in this month’s issue.

According to a new study, removing trade barriers associated with the import of solar PV products into the European Union will positively benefit the European jobs market. Between 2008 and 2014, both the number of jobs created and GVA decreased; growth is forecast between now and 2020, however. Policy makers have “much” to do in realizing Europe’s solar potential says SolarPower Europe’s CE.