Asia

Chinese solar manufacturer Seraphim has announced plans for a 500 MW cell factory in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The company also plans to expand an existing 300 MW module factory in South Africa’s Eastern Cape region by 200 MW.

Enphase, Huawei and other companies which make inverters in China may be the beneficiaries of a compromise struck between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

The South Korean PV manufacturer saw sales increase slightly in the last quarter. Net losses, however, more than quadrupled compared to the previous period.

Curtailment issues will prompt Chinese government to focus on new project development in the urban east, to reduce power losses. The central authorities also want to ramp up the electricity trading market and peak shaving technology.

Carbon Tracker has released a report claiming it is cheaper, in many markets, to construct new renewable generation assets instead of running legacy coal-fired power plants. Billions could be saved for customers, while profits in the two-digit billion-dollar range look set to be lost by the coal industry.

With a new decree, the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has enabled the owners of residential, commercial and industrial rooftop PV systems to sell excess power to the grid. The government hopes the new provisions will result in around 1 GW of deployed PV capacity over the next three years. Doubts, however, have been raised about the attractiveness of the scheme.

The French industrial equipment manufacturer expects to almost double turnover in solar by 2023. The company supplies materials for ingot production as well as providing electrical protection solutions such as fuses, fuse holders, heatsinks, wire management, disconnect switches, laminated busbars and surge protective devices.

Taiwan-based Motech Industries Inc. has announced a further reduction of staff. Overall, it plans to let 916 employees go in January. Its survival strategy includes focusing on high efficiency products and serving the local market. To this end, it says it has entered into collaborations with unidentified partners.

The storage system company, in which Solaredge recently acquired a majority share, has said it will commission two large storage systems in South Korea before the end of the year. The market looks somewhat promising according to recent government initiatives, like the ‘Renewable Energy 3020’ plan and a 3 GW solar park on reclaimed land.

A team of scientists at Germany’s Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg has set an efficiency record of 12.25% for a non-fullerene based organic solar cell.