Covid-19 crisis

A pandemic-related sales slump has dealt another blow to domestic panel makers already faced with rising input costs and an expected surge in imports due to the scheduled wind down of safeguarding duties on foreign products from late July.

KilowattSol CEO Xavier Daval has criticized the absence of references to solar in the French government’s post-Covid recovery plan, which has allocated €30 billion to the energy transition. The head of the PV technical advisory says solar must become more central to France’s strategic choices and China must not be allowed to retain its near-monopoly on PV panel manufacturing.

Negative second-quarter updates from China and uber-low new-solar figures from India, however, show the world is far from out of the woods yet.

The country also intends to continue the procurement exercise for the Dimona solar power plant in the Negev desert. The Israeli government also will try to remove barriers to facilitate rapid and efficient development, while improving the grid-connection process for projects.