How much vertical BIPV is too much?
A French-Italian research group has shown that BIPV facades on buildings can cause a ‘darkening’ effect by reducing light reflectance on nearby installations, dragging down energy production by 11%. The ‘urban heat island effect’ can also weigh on PV system performance, the researchers said.
Pay-as-you-go offer for offgrid solar, pay TV in Africa
Bboxx rents out offgrid PV systems and TVs to rural villagers across Africa. Customers can buy electricity under a mobile-based pay-as-you-go model.
Philippines’ nexus approach for water and solar power supply
The country’s National Irrigation Administration will bet on floating PV and solar-powered irrigation to improve water and energy supply. The Pantabangan and Casecnan dams, in the province of Nueva Ecija in the Central Luzon region, have been identified as ideal locations for floating solar.
Umweltbank finances 110 MW solar project in Germany
Developer Anumar has secured the signature of Norwegian renewables company Statkraft on a 50 MW power purchase agreement for the project and another 30 MW of generation capacity has been awarded a feed-in premium tariff in a tender. Umweltbank provided a €55 million loan.
World’s lowest bid of $0.0135/kWh wins in Abu Dhabi’s 2 GW solar tender
Emirates Water and Electricity Co. awarded the 2 GW project to a consortium that includes Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., Masdar, French energy group EDF, and China’s JinkoPower.
EU maintains anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties on solar glass from China
The European Commission has concluded that there are no compelling reasons to scrap definitive countervailing and anti-dumping measures on solar glass imports from China. Currently, the anti-subsidy duties range from 3.2% to 17.1%, while anti-dumping tariffs are between 17.5% and 75.4%.
Residential storage solution with LG Chem battery, SolarEdge inverter
The South Korean battery manufacturer has integrated SolarEdge’s Energy Hub system into its RESU 10H battery, which has a capacity of 5 kW and offers 9.8 kWh of storage.
SunPower to launch 625 W shingled module
Group spinoff Maxeon Solar Technologies will produce the new Performance 5 modules with bifacial mono-PERC solar cells, made from large format eight-inch G12 wafers. The panels boast an efficiency of 21.2%.
German customs bureau launches another probe into illegal PV module imports
The German authorities have issued 14 search warrants in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Berlin. The probe is related to imports of 480,000 solar panels in 2014 and 2015, when the European Union had anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese solar products.
Chinese PV Industry Brief: New PV capacity exceeds 10 GW in H1
More than 10 GW of PV capacity was deployed in the world’s largest solar market in the first half, according to several sources. One state-run think tank has even predicted that China could install 40 GW this year.
