Japan

Pu Neng claims it has now drawn more than $90 million in total investment in its vanadium redox flow battery technology, but the Beijing-based manufacturer did not disclose the terms of its deal with High Power Exploration (HPX).

Roughly 6.85 GW of solar panels were shipped in Japan in the fiscal year to the end of March 2017, from about 5.56 GW in the preceding year, according to new statistics from the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (JPEA).

The expansion of the Asian solar market in the first quarter of 2017 was broadly similar to the growth seen in the first quarter of last year, although most countries in the region have yet to reveal official installation statistics for the January-March period, the Asian Photovoltaic Industry Association (APVIA) said in a new report.

Deliveries of PV cells and modules hit 1.7 GW in the three months to the end of December, down from 1.8 GW in the July-September period, according to the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (JPEA).

SB Energy — the renewables development arm of Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank — has switched on a 32.3 MW solar array in Yusui, Kagoshima prefecture.

The Japanese trading firm has started selling its new Smart Star L lithium-ion storage battery system for the Japanese residential PV market. It has designed the system in cooperation with Yokohama-based manufacturer NF Corp.

The CIS thin-film PV specialist has posted an operating loss of JPY 3 billion ($26.4 million) in the three months to March 31, from JPY 2.6 billion a year earlier. Net sales fell 41.3% on the year to JPY 22.2 billion.

The Japanese electronics group posted a net profit attributable to shareholders of JPY 149.4 billion ($1.3 billion) in the fiscal year to the end of March — from JPY 165.2 billion a year earlier — as declining sales of solar panels in Japan eroded its earnings. The group’s net sales fell more than 3% on the year to JPY 7343.7 billion, although its operating profit rose to JPY 276.8 billion, from just JPY 230.3 billion a year earlier.

The Japanese group’s net income attributable to shareholders fell from JPY 109,047 million ($970.9 million) to JPY 103,843 million in the 12 months to the end of March 2017, partly due to declining sales from its solar business. It did not reveal its total PV module shipments for the year.

A joint venture of four Japanese firms invest $315 million for a solar project in the south of the country. The solar park is scheduled to start operation in January 2020, producing 99 MWh annually.