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The fact solar manufacturers in China are still aggressively expanding output illustrates the strength of global demand for PV even as hopes for a rebound in Chinese installations appear to have been groundless.

After several years of stagnation, Spain has started to see a revival in its PV market, writes IHS Markit’s Maria Chea. The country’s newfound growth has been due to a combination of tender and private PPA projects, along with decreasing component costs.

The French energy giant will provide supermarket Tesco with electricity from 17 rooftop PV installations and two wind farms for a renewables portfolio generation capacity of 59 MW. The groceries retailer has announced plans to install 187 solar rooftops.

RP Construction Services has begun the 3-MW solar installation for clothing retailer Gap’s distribution center in Fresno, California. Once complete, the system is expected to help Gap meet approximately 50% of the Fresno facility’s energy needs and reduce the company’s operating expenses, while supporting the company’s goal to reach 100% renewable energy across its global owned and operated facilities by 2030.

Enphase Energy announced that the Enphase IQ 7A microinverter for high-power monofacial and bifacial solar modules will begin shipping to customers in North America in November 2019. The IQ 7A microinverter augments the lineup of seventh-generation Enphase microinverters with support for modules up to 450 W, targeting high-power residential and commercial solar applications.

Renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) accounted for 18.49% of net domestic electrical generation during the first eight months of 2019, according to a SUN DAY Campaign analysis of just-released data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). A year earlier, renewables’ share was 17.95%.

A U.S. research team has used protein bacteriorhodopsin to improve the efficiency of what it called ‘bioperovskite’ solar cells. The scientists used Förster Resonance Energy Transfer to predict the strength of long-range excitonic transport between the perovskite and protein layers.

The South African utility has issued a 20-strong tender for 50 kW solar inverters and mounting structures, to be used in four power plants. Although it is unclear whether the tender marks the energy company’s first step into solar energy, the procurement follows the recent publication of South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan. Eskom is reportedly developing a renewables-linked large scale storage project which may explain the need for inverters.

U.S. oil major Chevron did not respond to pv magazine’s questions. Exxon Mobil and BP did not produce figures for their clean energy investment activity and Total responded only with its ‘low carbon electricity’ spending. Shell stated it had invested €1.6 billion in clean energy from late 2016 up to June.

Research from the United States has demonstrated how PV technology can be used to kill cancer cells. Although still at an embryonic stage, the findings of the study and initial test results suggest solar power could be an effective tool in relation to light-activated fluorescent dyes for disease diagnosis, image-guided surgery and site-specific tumor treatment.

The facility will be developed under the World Bank’s Scaling Solar initiative on a public-private partnership basis in Herat province.

At the recently held 2019 PV ModuleTech conference, held in Malaysia, PV Tech talked with Frédéric Dross, VP Technology Americas with DSM after his presentation that highlighted PV module materials for performance and reliability.

Leading US solar developer 8minute Solar Energy is to collaborate with Doosan GridTech to use advanced, predictive software controls to dispatch energy from solar-plus-storage plant in California.

Nordic renewables giant Statkraft has confirmed its entry into Ireland’s nascent solar power market, acquiring nine solar projects in the country.

BayWa r.e. has taken two utility-scale floating solar projects to the finish line in the Netherlands, bringing a sizeable installed capacity boost to the segment in Europe.