Coronavirus

Plus, solar funding is down and Australian rooftop installers are preparing for tough times ahead as one U.S. utility has warned customers to be alert to scammers hoping to benefit from the pandemic.

A clean energy and e-mobility executive recruitment firm says 67 chief executives and founders remain relentlessly positive in the face of the public health crisis and expect the global recovery from the pandemic to be led by a green revolution.

Accreditation institute DNV GL has made some astonishing carbon-related predictions as it prepares the next edition of its Energy Transition Outlook report. The Norwegian body says transport-related emissions have peaked and those of the iron and steel industries may well have too.

A study into the clean energy tech innovation rate required to keep global heating under control may suggest concepts such as lithium-air could yet keep us to the mid-century ambition, but it is also starting to contemplate the temperature rise to be expected if we only achieve net-zero by 2070.

Plus, there is hope of a bright new dawn with proposed legislative changes in Europe and the U.S. even as the solar equipment industry hits new lows and cyber attacks reportedly increase in frequency.

The heads of state of the 27 EU member states agreed to resist calls from a reported eight countries to expand the nature of projects eligible for energy transition support beyond renewables.

The organizers of the Solar Solutions International event which was postponed in March have persuaded the Dutch government industry events should not be subject to the same Covid-19 restrictions as concerts.

Industry body the VDMA said business fell 55% from the final three months of last year to the first quarter of this year for the worst retreat since 2012. The nature of the order book and sales figures can both be explained by the global progress of Covid-19, according to the organization.

Vaibhav Pratap Singh, senior analyst from South Asian thinktank the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, tells pv magazine about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Indian solar sector, green finance and other investment prospects.

The government is said to be working on amending its renewable energy legislation to enable people without their own roofspace to benefit from the solar boom.