Market & Trends

Australia’s large scale solar installed capacity is set to triple in 2017. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has awarded 12 PV power plant projects, worth 482 MW, grant funding under its program to stimulate the market segment. It was announced today in Syndey that AU$91.7 million ($71 million) in grants will be provided to projects worth around AU$1.06 billion ($820 million).

Indian module maker Vikram Solar has signed a MoU with German equipment supplier teamtechnik that will see the two companies collaborate on Vikram’s manufacturing expansion from 500 MW to 2 GW over the next three years.

With Renewable Energy India Expo opening its doors tomorrow in the New Dehli region, Vikram Solar President and CTO Ivan Saha tells pv magazine that the country’s rooftop sector is set to transition to a market of between 1 GW and 1.5 GW in 2017. While this is well short of government goals, combined with an expected 8 GW of utility scale solar, now is the time for India to arrive as one of PV’s major markets.

After a short uptick in installations in June, Germany has recorded another weak month for solar PV installations. The Federal Network Agency has reported that on 81.6 MW were installed for the month.

BayWa renewable energy has entered the Australian solar market through the acquisition of local wholesaler and developer Solarmatrix. BayWa r.e. said the move is a continuation of its expansion into the southern hemisphere.

A bankruptcy court has approved the expedited auction of SunEdison projects with NRG as the “stalking horse” bidder, and NRG has separately announced a deal to purchase 26 C&I solar projects.

Indian solar developers are gradually laying the groundwork for the emergence of a secondary market for solar assets by shopping their rapidly growing project portfolios to prospective investors, according to a recent report by Bridge to India.

Trina Solar will no longer be a publically traded company in 2017, under a $1.1 billion proposed deal announced today. Founder and company chairman and CEO Jifan Gao, along with Fortune Solar Holdings and Red Viburnum Company, have agreed on a deal with an investor consortium in which all shares in the company will be acquired for $0.232 per share.

SolarWorld has increased its Q2 2016 shipments 39% YoY, to 342 MW, in 2016. Revenues increased almost 30% for the quarter, to €222 million ($246 million), while achieving an EBIT profit of €20.5 ($22.7 million) million.

Profits from the Kyocera business unit that includes its solar operations have slumped more than 50% in Q2, as a result of softening demand from the Japanese market. The company booked revenues of JPY45.6 billion ($440 million) in Q2 2016 from Applied Ceramics, a decrease of 13.2% QoQ.