ABB

The Swiss power group and Italian utility Evolvere have started a blockchain pilot project designed to facilitate transparent, secure peer-to-peer energy trading.

The Chinese string inverter giant was the world’s biggest supplier for the fourth year in a row, in spite of having lost 4% in global market shares, according to analyst Wood Mackenzie. Asia-Pacific was again the largest inverter market last year, accounting for 64% of global shipments. Sungrow and SMA were, respectively, the second and third largest providers.

IHS Markit’s analysts have mapped out what they are keeping an eye out for in the year ahead. Aside from higher installation figures, the number-crunchers predict a continued battle for multi-function in the hard-fought inverter segment and a potential watershed year for utility-scale storage.

The procurement will be worth an estimated $2.25 billion, and will stipulate the use of 1.2 GW of Indian-made equipment. The power generated will replace 4 GW of coal-fired electricity consumption used by the railways.

The government may not fancy solar much, but that won’t stop the sector bouncing back big-time … albeit in two years’ time. Maybe London’s Underground network can help kick-start a desperately needed solar renaissance.

The nation installed 4.9 GW of solar, surpassing the USA – which installed 4.7 GW – to become the second largest solar market in the first half of the year, second only to China’s 24.3 GW.

The 5.5 MW facility was built by power company Göteborg Energi. The solar plant, in Säve, near Gothenburg, is intended to increase the utility’s generation capacity from renewable sources.

The project connecting Germany and Norway was first conceived in 2015. The 624 km undersea cable will have a capacity of 1.4 GW, when operational in 2020. The EU is supporting the project and other grid infrastructure projects through its EFSI scheme to interconnect the European energy markets, for better renewable energy integration and improved security of supply.

The company reports that its IoT ABB Ability platform connects to existing GE Industrial Solutions’ installations. The company will supply its products to GE, with the GE brand name being retained. Access to the North-American market was named as one of the primary motivators for the acquisition. At the same time, the company inked a deal to support Be Power in the Italian market for dispatching services with its ABB Ability solution.

Inverter manufacturers tapped into the major theme of digitization in their product presentations at this year’s Smarter E event in Munich – of which Intersolar Europe is a part of. The solutions deploy smart software solutions for maximizing self-consumption, O&M provision and enable hybrid architectures across all three market segments.