solar modules

The Andhra Pradesh solar auction was oversubscribed by 8.5 GW. Final prices are significantly higher than the record-low tariffs achieved in other recent auctions in the country.

The Romanian government has changed the rules of the Casa Verde Fotovoltaice (green PV home) scheme to support residential solar installations under the country’s net metering regime. The new provisions improve the installation process and settlement of rebate payments.

Researchers in the Netherlands say the lack of a universal standard is preventing luminescent solar concentrators from being widely adopted as photonic devices or for improvement of PV module performance. This technology can be integrated with finished solar panels with no need of modifying their electronic structure, helping them collect high-energy photons that they fail to harvest.

In a recent media brief, new Enel Green Power CEO Salvatore Bernabei discussed the company’s operating results for 2020 and its future strategies across several markets. pv magazine asked him questions about new solar plans, recent auction prices and the PV module factory the Italian group operates in Catania, in southern Italy. Bernabei also made it clear that he wants to bet on green and not blue or grey hydrogen for the company’s next step into the energy transition.

Imported inverters and solar lanterns may become costlier from April, as the new budget raised the charges levied on them from 5%, for each category, to 20% and 15%, respectively.

Wuxi Autowell has begun construction on its 50 GW wafer factory in Guangdong province and Longi and Wuxi Shangji Automation have announced new supply deals. GCL-Poly has announced it will raise the production capacity of its factory in Jiangsu from 6,000 to 10,000 metric tons – despite the company suffering a cross-default at the weekend.

An international research team has developed a cleaning system for solar panels that combines a vibrating device with the use of hydrophilic curved rungs. The technique is claimed to be able to remove the surface contaminants through the internal flow of vibrating water droplets applied with a pipette onto the module surface and transported, under vibration, to the contaminated parts.

Large scale PV projects selected in public tenders held by the Turkish authorities will be awarded a 10-year tariff of TRL0.32/kWh ($0.044). The tariff will be indexed to inflation and dollar-euro exchange rate.

The Israel Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Agriculture have decided to implement a pilot research program to assess the feasibility of agrivoltaic projects in the country. The possibility of combining PV and agriculture in a land with limited land availability and increasing energy demand is considered a win-win solution by the government.

The NEM 3.0 program will run until the end of 2023 and will see the participation of residential, commercial and industrial prosumers as well as public entities and government ministries.