Policy for Solar Energy News

Taiwan’s government risks failing to make good on solar growth pledges unless it acts to clear structural hurdles such as land shortages, industry operators have warned at Energy Taiwan 2019.

In a new white paper released today by the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the organizations offer recommendations on how U.S. policymakers can most effectively design a federal high-penetration renewable energy standard (RES) that enhances grid reliability, creates American jobs, and increases American economic competitiveness globally.

A report published recently by the United Kingdom’s National Infrastructure says that the UK’s regulatory system must “adapt to meet the demands of the future” by providing new powers for regulators to ensure utility investments in sustainable infrastructure. The report notes that without such powers, the country will be unlikely to meet its target of zero emissions by 2050.

Taiwan will try and use its leverage as a global electronic and manufacturing hotspot to engineer a multi-gigawatt clean energy boom, government figures have said as they kickstarted this year’s edition of Energy Taiwan.

The German Energy Agency has drawn up a list of proposed measures which it says could help the world’s biggest solar market accelerate its clean energy plans through the adoption of subsidy-free – private – power purchase agreements.

The momentum around corporate renewable PPAs should not blind industry players from the fact the avenue remains too costly and complex for some businesses, three lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright have argued as part of a piece for PV Tech Power 20.

Expert warnings that India will be falling short of its renewable deployment targets have sparked a strong-worded rebuke from the government, which has slammed them as “ill-founded”

An accelerated transition to renewables could go either way, regarding the United States’ unique geopolitical strength. According to Indra Overland – head of the Center for Energy Research at the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs – the U.S. could surrender a major advantage if it abandons fossil fuel. The nation could, however, remain dominant in the global energy sector if it continues to lead on innovation and clean energy tech-related intellectual property.

Hanwha Q Cells officially opened its 300,000 square foot solar panel factory in Dalton, Georgia last week, claiming it is the largest such manufacturing facility in the western hemisphere.

The nation’s plan for grid-parity solar – brought forward to ease a mounting public PV subsidy debt burden – could be left in ruins by a newly-announced scheme to part liberalize the electricity price, itself motivated by a need to bail out financially stricken state-owned power companies.

Athens-based policy group The Green Tank labelled Greece’s decision “historic” while Europe Beyond Coal, an alliance of civil society groups working to make Europe coal free by 2030 said Hungary should target a more ambitious 2025 phase-out.

The German government has acted to remove a key hurdle to solar growth, in a deal hammered out as pressure for bold climate policies builds in the country’s streets and legislative chambers.

The US Department of Energy has shut down the site for its Open PV Project, which supplied cost and installation data. Is this the winding down of a project whose time had come, or is the administration of President Donald Trump closing off another data source on renewable energy?

While some of the industry insiders at REI 2019 have made predictable calls to scrap restrictions imposed by regulators, others have continued to maintain that policy support is crucial, while audience members voiced concerns about India’s lack of recycling rules.

Energy companies are lacking any kind of certainty over Brexit and how it will affect the sector, but cannot allow it to have any impact on the “fundamental issue” of climate change and the energy transition, some of Europe’s leading utilities have said.