Andy Colthorpe

US federal agency the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has said it will keep open land designated for solar projects for future development despite its failed bid last week.

An area focusing on renewable heating as well as a three-day forum on the topic will be added to offerings at Intersolar Europe at next year’s show.

Exosun, with its Exotrack HZ horizontal single-axis tracker, has become the first manufacturer of solar tracking systems to gain compliance with UL3703 certification standards.

Hawaiian Electric Company has selected the US’s largest PV installer SolarCity to develop a 15MW utility-scale solar power plant on the Hawaiian island of O’ahu.

Mercom Capital has published its Q3 2013 Solar Funding and M&A Report, in which the clean energy communications and consultancy firm claims that total corporate funding, global venture capital funding and solar mergers and acquisitions activities all showed increases from the previous quarter.

Sanctions including the withdrawal of feed-in tariff (FiT) certification are being considered by the Japanese government for PV projects that have been approved under the country’s FiT but remain unbuilt.

TUV Rheinland has awarded six energy storage certificates to Phono Solar, for the Phonocube all-in-one PV inverter and storage system.

NPD Solarbuzz has issued the latest Solarbuzz Quarterly report, in which the market research firm reports that end-market demand in the photovoltaic (PV) industry reached a record 9GW in the third quarter of 2013 globally.

Several obstacles to the installation of new solar power generating capacity in India must be overcome if the government’s ambitious renewable energy plans are to stay on track, according to Raj Prabhu, chief executive officer at clean energy consultancy and communications firm Mercom.

Self-consumption and other new business models for PV “can reduce and ultimately suppress the reliance on dedicated financial support”, according to Marie Latour, senior national policy advisor at the European Photovoltaic Industry Association.