PV

Two reports have described how the world’s largest renewable energy market is moving towards maturity. According to the Brookings Institution, the Chinese clean energy market could become more open to Western investors and tech. A report by Fitch claims projects are moving back to inland provinces from coastal regions.

Engie has raised eyebrows with the installation of several solar benches in Biarritz, southwestern France, as a local official has asked citizens to avoid sitting on them for long periods of time in order to keep their energy yield up. But the authorities over in Cannes are clearly impressed, as the municipal government in the French Riviera resort town has also revealed plans to buy more of the PV benches, which are designed by Croatian startup Include.

The improved performance was achieved by using a methylene bridged material, the molecular dye DfZnP-iPr.

Traditional solar cookers concentrate sunlight on mirrored surfaces and convert it into heat. But this summer, Sunspot unveiled Sunspot Solar Electric Cooking, a new cooker based on PV technology. The system relies on two PV modules, a lead-carbon battery, an inverter, and an induction cooktop.

Average spot polysilicon price has crossed below the $8/kg threshold for the first time, according to PVInsights. Market analyst Johannes Bernreuter said, however, that the industry should not read too much into $8/kg as a historical threshold and that prices may rise again in September, driven by strong demand in the Chinese market.

In the early years of the 21st century, distributed generation systems in Latin America were mainly installed off-grid in remote rural areas, writes Maria Chea, solar analyst at IHS Markit. As the El Niño phenomenon and high oil prices continued to exacerbate high electricity prices and power shortages, governments began to turn their attention to distributed generation, including PV systems, to assuage strains on their national grid networks.

South Korea’s largest PV project is scheduled for commissioning by next year. The project developer – Korean floating PV specialist Scotra – is also planning a 2.5 MW offshore solar project with the support of the government.

The country’s agency for rural electrification is seeking proposals for a 1.3 MW solar project and a 1.5 MW/2 MWh storage system.

The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority will use energy from the gigawatt-scale Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park to provide a new hydropower plant with pumped storage capacity. The state-owned utility has announced a number of innovations for the project in recent months, including plans for hydrogen and large-scale storage capacity.

The 20 MW plant will feature 62,750 solar panels. Installer Perpetum Energy plans to commission the project in the spring of 2020.