Solar PV

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, presents the solar irradiance data it collected for Europe in May. Below-average cloud cover meant above normal irradiation for much of the UK, France, Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, with anomalies as high as 30% and 40% above climatological means. Solar assets across Northern Europe will have overperformed on expectations for May.

India added 518 MW of new open-access solar capacity in the January-March period, from 308 MW installed in the previous three months.

CEA-INES researchers and Enel have developed a new solar cell with an active area of 9 cm² and an open-circuit voltage above 1,900 mV. Their results improve on the 26.5% efficiency they achieved for the same kind of cell in March.

The Queensland government has awarded two key contracts for what it says will be the largest pumped hydro energy project in the world, with the proposed 5 GW/120 GWh Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro energy storage system to form a cornerstone of the Australian state’s energy transition.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

The US solar industry had its best first quarter in history as supply chain challenges started to fade, according to the US Solar Market Insight Q2 2023 report.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) has awarded a loan to Angola’s Ministry of Energy and Water to deploy two large-scale solar power plants.

PV manufacturing capacity is projected to more than double by 2024, led by China, but oversupply is also anticipated, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Luxembourg has selected 75 solar projects in the nation’s first procurement exercise for self-consumption. It will launch a second tender in July.

Lebanon’s persistent political and economic meltdown, resulting in widespread poverty and an incapacitated electric utility, has led citizens to adopt off-grid solar-plus-battery systems. Over the past two years, they have installed a record-breaking 900 MW of PV.