World

The world had more than half a terawatt of PV generation capacity at the end of last year as emerging solar markets picked up the slack caused by Beijing’s subsidy about-turn to the tune of a 20% rise in installations outside China.

The PV solutions division of DuPont Electronics and Imaging has revealed plans to work with the Fraunhofer ISE on optimizing testing protocols for crystalline silicon solar modules.

All-electric buses will cost the same as diesel options by 2030 – and possibly earlier – according to research into the global EV market.

PV demand started weakly this year but will show an upward trend in the second half. Corrine Lin, chief analyst at PV InfoLink, examines supply and demand for polysilicon and predicts huge new capacities will come online in the west of China and shake up the market, spelling bad news for some international players.

Solar could meet approximately 68% of global energy demand with other renewables making up the rest, according to a new report. A 100% renewable energy system could also create 22 million solar jobs by 2050, the study claims. Keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees C, though, would require FITs for projects up to 40 MW in capacity, auctions for bigger systems, removing fossil fuel and nuclear subsidies and providing more education and R&D and less red tape.

Mercom Capital Group’s Q1 2019 Solar Funding & M&A report has registered $2.8 billion in venture capital, public market and debt financing, up from $2.5 billion a year ago. Large scale project financing reached a record $5.58 billion across 43 deals and there were 18 solar corporate M&A transactions.

Often, it is not inverter faults that frustrate customers – such things happen – it is poor customer service. Here we look at the first of a series of cases that will be discussed at the pv magazine quality roundtable planned for Intersolar Europe, in Munich, which indicates what the industry must avoid in future.

Hanergy displayed the newest rendition of its 18.7% Thin Film Flat SOLARtile in Australia last week as it gears up for the U.S. and global product launch later in 2019.

Solar and wind could account for three-fifths of electricity generation in 2050, with more than 14.5 TW of installed power. Lumped together, renewables are expected to reach a power generation capacity of around 20 TW.

The transition for utility scale storage from offering short duration, high value grid services to the world of long duration energy peaking could spell the end of fossil fuel backup generation within five years.