Asia

China, Hong Kong and Vietnam are the top three nations exporting batteries to India. Chinese imports were worth $773 million in the last fiscal year with Hong Kong shipping $267 million worth and Vietnam $114 million, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The debt-saddled PV project developer appears to again be piling up credit lines as it awaits the outcome next week of its latest, $231 million Chinese state-backed bail-out.

Storage system providers in Europe have told pv magazine output has thus far been unaffected by the virus outbreak in China. Manufacturers are aware, however, the situation may change rapidly if self-isolation measures taken by the authorities continue.

The PV manufacturer said it has no connections to a website which features its logo and some of its completed solar projects and which invites visitors to download an app enabling them to start investing.

Korean researchers claim it is possible to extract more than 10% of ‘hidden electricity’ in crystalline solar cells using a new encapsulation process based on poly‐dimethylsiloxane coatings and a three-dimensional module structure. Compared to EVA films, the new coating is said to avoid cutting off short-wavelength light.

The French oil and gas giant—which is already a partner in Adani’s natural gas business—will now invest US$ 510 million to buy 50% stake in 2,148 MW operating solar plants owned by Adani Green Energy Limited.

A new paper published by researchers at China’s Tianjin University examines the state of the art in grid level energy storage, outlining the pros and cons of various battery technologies being deployed on grids around the world, and remaining challenges that could be overcome if research is pushed in the right direction.

Capacity additions for the current fiscal year are set to exceed the previous accounting period’s 8,532 MW. With $5.69 billion invested in clean energy in the last fiscal year, spending in the first nine months of 2019-20 has been estimated at $5.16 billion.

The Japanese electronics company has produced a solid-state, dye-sensitized solar cell for integration into sensors and consumer electronics. The company says the device can generate electricity from indoor light.

Analyst Johannes Bernreuter says most of China’s polysilicon production capacity is in regions away from the center of the coronavirus outbreak. He added, however, 27% of the nation’s 510,000-ton annual polysilicon capacity could be affected.