PV modules

In its next procurement exercise, the Hungarian government will allocate 77% of the available renewable subsidies that it failed to assign in March’s auction.

China’s cumulative installed PV capacity topped 208 GW at the end of March, thanks to 3.95 GW of new projects completed in the first quarter. JinkoSolar and Longi both joined the 500 W-plus module race, with their new panels offering 580 W and 530 W of output, respectively. Ginlong, meanwhile, has revealed plans to raise funds to increase its annual inverter production capacity to 20 GW, and Xi’An Solar has claimed a 23.2% efficiency rate for its N-type TOPCon modules in mass production.

OMV Petrom has installed rooftop PV arrays on 40 of its gas stations across Romania.

The panel is part of the company’s new Tiger Pro series, which includes two 530 W modules and a 430 W product for distributed-generation applications. It will begin production of the series in the fourth quarter, although it will start accepting first orders immediately.

U.S.-based Toledo Solar is trying to distinguish itself from First Solar’s cadmium telluride dominance by operating in the residential and commercial segments, which have long been unkind to the technology.

A Spanish start-up has developed a system which offers automated fault detection in solar panels at any scale.

German engineering association the VDMA expects a difficult year because of the Covid-19 crisis. Sales had already dropped considerably last year and the current order intake level offers no glimpse of hope. However, the public health crisis may offer business in new markets determined to break a dependence on Chinese panels.

In a recent conversation with pv magazine Roland Valckenborg, business developer and project manager at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), has described the results of a multi-year testing program for colored BIPV modules. Just a few years ago, it it was thought that power yield could be up to 50% lower than conventional panels, but tests have shown a difference of just 10%. Valckenborg says that losses can vary depending on the color of a panel.

The unstoppable growth of Australia’s rooftop PV fleet continues to eat into the pie previously reserved for coal and gas, a new audit of the National Electricity Market shows. Meanwhile, the nation’s electricity consumption has remained mostly flat despite the economic slowdown triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Specialist Alencon Systems teamed up with U.S. utility Duke Energy to look at some of the challenges faced by energy companies when adding battery storage to operational solar installations. Do you go for DC-coupled or AC-coupled? And with what sort of grounding scheme?