North America

While the damage is largely done for cells, modules and inverters, increased tariffs on U.S. module components and 15% measures on lithium-ion batteries are not good news for either sector.

The pressure building for the US to water down decades-old federal energy policy risks further tilting the scales in utilities’ favour, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

PV Evolution Labs (PVEL) is including a number of key module reliability tests to its PV Module Product Qualification Program (PQP) that is more responsive to downstream market needs.

A solar project likely to become Canada's largest to date has received provincial approval, paving the way for construction of the 400MW operation to start next year.

Fully tapping into Latin America’s bullish solar market will require challenging preconceptions around a region that is more stable than is sometimes assumed, local operators have told PV Tech.

Standard Solar and Pivot Energy have expanded their partnership to co-develop five more community solar projects across Colorado.

With the anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed in November 2013 set to expire nine months ago, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal has extended them for another five years, ruling their expiry would harm the nation’s only domestic manufacturer.

Reports of fires at Amazon facilities look set to pile fresh controversy on Tesla’s US solar installs, with new claims emerging only days after Walmart took Elon Musk’s firm to court over blaze incidents.

Hawaiian Electric Co (HEC) has kickstarted a colossal clean energy tender, seeking providers of 900MW worth of renewables and energy storage projects.

Johnson Controls announced a partnership with Capital Dynamics to increase the amount of capital available for customers in North America working on solar or battery storage projects. The agreement will grant easier access to funding for Johnson Controls customers using a Power Purchase Agreement for projects of varying sizes, starting at $1 million, by aggregating them into a larger portfolio of projects.

Standard Solar has completed a seven-site solar project for Flushing Community School District in Flushing, Michigan. In a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership, Standard Solar designed, built, financed and will operate and maintain solar arrays at all seven schools within the Flushing Community School District. The renewable energy generated by the 956.8 kilowatts of combined arrays is estimated to save the school district $45,000 annually and $900,000 over the course of the contract.

Azimuth Energy recently completed a 1-MW community solar project at St. Louis Lambert International Airport for Ameren Missouri. The project was first announced in 2017.

Next year’s first major solar-plus-storage trade show on the calendar announced a new partnership with NABCEP to increase attendee numbers. Eligible PV professionals will be able to attend the Intersolar North America expo hall for free at the San Diego Convention Center from February 4-6, 2020, and can register for NABCEP-approved continuing education classes to receive up to nine Continuing Education Units (CEUs) they can use toward Board Certification and recertification requirements.

First-half losses that ballooned to $85.3 million saw the share price of the Texan third-party solar company fall 8% according to San Diego law firm Robbins Arroyo LLP. The legal business says it is investigating ‘potential violations of federal securities laws’ in connection with last month’s IPO.

International data suggests that fires caused by rooftop solar power systems are rare; however, the United States doesn’t centrally track this information – with the National Fire Data Center classifying them in the “other” category.