China

Electricity produced from commercial and industrial solar energy systems is now cheaper in Chinese cities than that supplied by the national grid.

A mixture of development support, market economics and awareness programmes have propelled Papua New Guinea to the forefront of global off-grid solar, according to a new report.

Daqo New Energy has agreed to supply 112,800 MT of polysilicon to Longi Green Energy Technology. The two parties did not disclose the financial terms of the three-year deal.

Chinese PV module maker Risen Energy says it has achieved its highest jump in solar module sales in the Australian market in a one-year period.

Back-contact module manufacturing equipment supplier Eurotron said its previous MWT (Metal Wrap Through) order from China-based PV module manufacturer, Sunport Power had been installed, qualified and begun volume production.

Chinese thin film producer Hanergy has set a new record of 24.85% module efficiency for silicon heterojunction technology. The record was achieved at the company’s research & development center in Chengdu, China, and has been confirmed by the Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hamelin, Germany.

The research firm says the value of the global inverter market will continue to decline until 2024, even though shipments will likely increase. China’s recent policy changes have increased pressure on prices, which will contribute to greater consolidation in the sector.

First Solar reported a bumper quarter during Q2 by most metrics. The company’s net sales of $585 million were nearly double the previous year, on shipments 1.4 GW of product – the most in its history. Additionally, First Solar booked more than 2.1 GW of orders in July alone, a very positive start to Q3.

Major China-based polysilicon producer, Xinte Energy has signalled a significant decline in expected profits for the first half of 2019, due to polysilicon ASPs declining 43% from the prior year period.

The global power and renewable energy market is expected to remain largely unaffected by the Trump administration’s new wave of tariffs on Chinese goods. Although shipments of Chinese modules into the U.S. market are falling, Chinese manufacturers sent more panels to overseas markets in the first half of this year than they did in the same period of 2018. Analysts from Fitch, meanwhile, claim the U.S. solar market will continue to expand, despite higher project costs.

Ongoing US-China trade tensions will not ruin solar fortunes on either side as players adapt by redrawing the lines of global supply flows, Fitch Solutions has predicted.

A report by Greenpeace has found in the five years since China announced the continent spanning ‘One Belt, One Road’ infrastructure plan, investment in Belt & Road countries has supported 12.6 GW of wind and solar power generation capacity. That is almost three times the 450 MW that came online in the territories before 2014. The initiative has also supported 68 GW of new coal capacity.

The state-owned China News Service today reported almost $80 million is left in the pot for large scale project subsidies this year despite almost 420 facilities with a combined generation capacity of 1.77 GW having missed out in the auction.

Indian and Australian solar will spearhead a grid parity shift set to take hold of Asia-Pacific renewables within less than a decade, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Quasi-governmental body the CPIA has released first-half figures for the world’s biggest solar marketplace which show production volumes for export markets continuing to expand and the domestic picture set to rebound after public solar subsidy levels were published.