Top News

In a political pile-on, it is a rarity when only rumors, and egos, get quashed. However, following months of allegations by Republican Congressional leaders that U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) loans had been granted recklessly, in a backroom bargaining process, a 60-day independent audit of the DOE loan portfolio released on February 10 found that no excessive risks had been taken on President Barack Obama’s watch.

New research from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. is developing a method by which more of sun’s spectrum can be harnessed by a photovoltaic cell. In theory, the hybrid semiconductor method could push through the theoretical efficiency barrier limiting silicon solar cells.

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.

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.

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.

An explanatory statement for the proposed law has now been presented. In it, the German Federal Ministry of Economics explains the planned steps to a new regulation of solar promotion. It remains unclear what the actual construction target of the Federal Government is, i.e. whether its 33.3 or 52 gigawatts (GW) of installed photovoltaic capacity.

Following months of negotiations, Germany’s solarhybrid AG has acquired Solar Millennium AG’s 2.25 gigawatt (GW) U.S. photovoltaic pipeline.

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics has presented its own proposal for alterations to the Renewable Energy Law (EEG). An additional installed capacity of 33.3 gigawatts (GW) could see an end to the solar subsidy.