United States

Clean Power Research saw solar generation shift downward from the norm by as much as 10% in many locations across the United States in the first half of 2019.

The internet’s favorite energy company installed 530 megawatt-hours of battery storage in Q4, beating out the previous record, set last quarter, as well as showing continued improvement in solar installations.

US researchers have unvelied a new manufacturing process to produce cadmium telluride (CdTe) PV panels, which they claim is 45% cheaper than current industry standards. The technique relies on the use of a high-pressure Bridgman furnace, which is a kind of industrial furnace utilized for crystal growth and directional solidification of polycrystalline ingots.

With solar grade polysilicon prices having plummeted in recent years, cutting down on consumption of the material has not been a priority. But strategies exist and significant savings can be made through deploying thinner wafers that use less silicon, insists a new paper published by MIT and NREL. And as manufacturers are increasingly hitting dead ends on other routes to cost reduction, this option could be back on the table for many.

UK scientists are proposing a new approach to calculating the optimum angular-tilt of PV panels for a planar surface at a particular site. In their view, the new technique may unlock innovative yield optimization methods for the installation of PV systems.

New York state has chosen Zinc8’s zinc-air battery to demonstrate the technology’s viability over a three-year period in a 100 kW/1 MWh storage system.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has accepted Daybreak Energy’s application to develop a 2,230 MW pumped-hydro facility on the banks of Lake Powell in Utah.

A list compiled by a British price comparison website draws upon data from German company Statista which shows clean energy – including hydro – made up 12.74% of the nation’s power mix at the end of September.

The Chinese government will extend duties on U.S. and South Korean polysilicon for another five years from today despite committing to buy $200 billion more American goods and services in the trade deal signed on Wednesday. Poly manufacturer REC Silicon says it expects polysilicon to form part of that trade agreement.

Some 15 countries are likely to be able to lay claim to the status of being members of solar’s “gigawatt club” in 2019, according to conservative projections from BloombergNEF. Nonetheless, PV suppliers, developers and service providers are always on the lookout for new pockets of growth. To kick off 2020, pv magazine’s global team of correspondents and editors have highlighted 10 “fast-growing” solar markets to evaluate where the opportunities, and potential risks, lie.