Asia

The world’s solar superpower added only 16 GW of new generation capacity up to the end of last month, according to the head of the main industry association. Short of a ten-week miracle, the annual capacity figure seems set for a second consecutive steep annual decline.

China will build the huge solar park at its own cost for its energy-hungry neighbor in exchange for access to rare earths. The project was announced by the Association of China Rare Earth Industry.

In racing to provide access to electricity to all its citizens, the government has commissioned extensive coal, gas and nuclear generation capacity and the solar sector fears an ever-expanding national grid will kill the business case for solar in previously off-grid areas.

A study has estimated the cost of PV project soiling may increase from €3-5 billion last year to €4-7 billion by 2023 due to more extensive deployment in high insolation and soiling-affected regions, such as China and India. The authors of the paper outlined the potential of soiling mitigation technologies while stressing more R&D is needed to reduce costs and for the adoption of such measures on a larger scale.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) has witnessed the installation of what is being billed as its leading distributed solar project to date, scattered across dozens of locations.

China-headquartered GCL-SI was among the module makers recognised at this year’s PV ModuleTech, arranged in Malaysia by PV Tech’s publisher Solar Media.

The four-year-old Hangzhou-based business says it already has a 20 MW perovskite module pilot line and is working on a mass production facility in the city of Quzhou.

D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) announced it has acquired First Solar’s Cove Mountain and Cove Mountain 2 projects in Iron County, Utah. The acquisition of the two projects, the sales of which were previously disclosed by First Solar and which total 180 MWAC in capacity, nearly doubles DESRI’s portfolio of First Solar-developed projects to over 360 MWAC.

The Italian fossil fuel company is not hanging around when it comes to diversifying into PV, with almost 1.5 GW of generation capacity plugged in since the start of last year.

The Chinese manufacturer has officially unveiled its high-efficiency product in Melbourne after celebrating a 13.6 MW panel order from the nascent Hungarian PV market.

The Swiss equipment maker has announced a fresh, CHF18 million order from Oxford PV but the news may have been strategically timed ahead of today’s update that it has completed the sale of its headquarters building.

French floating solar specialist Ciel & Terre has completed its first FPV plant in India through its local subsidiary.

1MW plant fired up at Gazprom Neft oil refinery in Russia. Photon Energy turns on eight PV plants totalling 5.6MWp in Hungary. Jinko delivers 13.6MW of modules to Photon Energy plants in Hungary.

With land procurement continuing to hold back India’s PV sector, the government is considering up to 55GW of solar and wind projects along the border with Pakistan where there is an abundance of barren lands.

KORE Power today announced its intentions to build a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in the United States to support global growth efforts for its Mark 1 Energy Storage System.