rooftop

Victoria’s state government has yielded to industry pressure and increased the frequency and number of rebates available in its rooftop solar subsidy programme.

Walburga Hemetsberger joined SolarPower Europe as its new CEO around six months ago. It’s been a busy time, with the European elections and attempts to implement net zero emissions strategies that have kept Brussels hustling and bustling. At the same time, Europe’s solar industry association has been trying to push its industrial policy and rooftop campaign. Hemetsberger sat down with pv magazine for an update.

Australian banking and financial services giant ANZ has extended its collaboration with Sydney-based Clean Energy Finance Corp. via an additional $67.7 million financing commitment to help the nation’s businesses cut energy costs and reduce carbon emissions. The bank is also offering financial discounts for upgrades and new investments in solar PV, energy storage, electric vehicles and other technologies.

The nation’s roofs could host up to 655 GWp of solar generation capacity a recent solar mapping exercise found. But a wider understanding of the benefits of solar, combined with incentives, would be required to unlock a potentially transformative energy development.

Ireland appears ready to embrace PV after years of failed announcements. Globaldata predicts the EU member state will deploy around 1.3 GW of solar by 2030, with renewables potentially meeting 65% of electricity demand. Furthermore, Irish Water has announced it wants to deploy solar at its water treatment plants.

Australia’s green bank has found a funding partner for a new programme to support solar and electric vehicle (EV) batteries, days after pledging to back less-mature technologies more decisively.

Researchers have built a tool to use cheap satellite imagery – like Google Maps – to automatically create solar designs with a 91% accuracy rate.

The weight of a thin-film rooftop PV installation at Netherlands football club AZ Alkmaar has been highlighted in media reports as a possible cause of a stadium roof collapse. However, a full investigation is yet to be launched and one German specialist said studies have shown flush-mount PV panels do not increase static wind loads on rooftops.

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.

The authorities in Western Australia have revealed that two units at Synergy’s Muja Power Station will be retired from October 2022. The state government said the coal-fired units were only being used about 35% of the time, largely because rooftop solar has reduced demand on the grid.

ReNu Energy signed an agreement last week for the sale of its Australian solar assets to CleanPeak Energy, a commercial rooftop solar startup.

‘Solar Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JA Solar has supplied its bifacial double-glass PERC modules to a 2.5MW rooftop project at a Goodyear tire manufacturing facility in Shah Alam, Malaysia, the country's largest such project.

Leading microinverter supplier, Enphase Energy shipped over 1.2 million units in the second quarter of 2019, with its latest IQ 7 model accounting for around 98% of shipment total.