Navitas Solar ramps up PV panel capacity to 1.7 GW
Indian manufacturer Navitas Solar is ramping up its PV panel capacity to 1.7 GW per year by adding a new 1.2 GW manufacturing facility. The new factory can produce M10 and G12 mono PERC and TOPCon modules.
Swiss manufacturer enters Australia with heterojunction solar module
Swiss solar module manufacturer Meyer Burger will enter the growing Australian PV market by offering a range of high-performance solar panels that it claims deliver greater energy yields than traditional technologies.
First Solar revenue falls in Q1 as US facility investments take priority
First Solar has reported a decline in first-quarter revenue, citing investments in US facilities as a priority, with 25% of its full-year guidance expected in the first half.
Atlas Renewable Energy signs PPA for 902 MW of solar in Brazil
Atlas Renewable Energy has signed an unprecedented 21-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Albras, the largest aluminum producer in Brazil. It is the longest corporate renewables PPA ever signed in Latin America.
Tokyo sets up purchasing groups for solar panels, batteries
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government claims that groups can achieve price reductions of up to 20% on purchases of solar modules and batteries.
Potential locations for solar, wind hybrid projects in India
Indian scientists have created a hybrid power exploitability index to identify optimal locations for constructing new solar and wind hybrid power plants. They have evaluated retrofitting existing standalone plants and have discovered that all but one of the eight plants could be hybridized, with up to a 400% annual increase in power output.
Mobile application to predict optimal energy efficient route for solar vehicles
Irish researchers have created a mobile app that calculates the best route for solar-powered vehicles based on user preferences for time and energy efficiency. The app’s experiment predicted the most energy-absorbing route with 51.65% accuracy and chose the most energy-consuming route with 86.65% accuracy.
Low-cost, portable sun-tracker for offgrid solar
Mauritian researchers have developed a solar tracker prototype that increases current by around 37%. The device uses a simplified and mechanical tracking system.
Argentina deployed 80 MW of new solar in Q1
Argentina reached 1,184 MW of cumulative installed PV capacity at the end of March.
Weekend Read: New turf for thin films
Thin-film technologies have long promised to make a major impact on the solar industry but have largely been constrained to niche applications and research labs if they were not shredded by the market. After several false starts, current trade dynamics and promising research programs may help solar thin films find their place in the sun.
