Ben Willis

The US trade body formerly known as the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) is to undergo a rebranding and drop ‘solar’ from its new name.

Record installations expected in 2016 will put the US within a stone’s throw of challenging China’s position as the world number one solar market this year.

Recent preliminary performance data from a small bifacial PV array in Germany suggest impressive yield gains compared to a conventional system. Joris Libal and Radovan Kopecek of ISC Konstanz take a closer look at what the results could signify about this emerging technology.

Last month Israeli inverter manufacturer SolarEdge revealed it had sold its 10 millionth power optimiser. With half of those shipped in 2015, there appears to have been a discernible change in attitudes recently toward module-level power technologies. SolarEdge’s Lior Handelsman explains why.

The 2016 instalment of the Italian trade show Solarexpo has been cancelled due to poor market conditions.

Israeli firm SolarEdge is launching its commercial inverter in the Japanese PV market.

Swiss developer HopSol has selected First Solar modules for a 5MW project in Namibia, south-west Africa.

Early results from a test array in Germany using bifacial ‘BiSoN’ module technology have indicated significant yield gains compared to a nearby reference site using standard modules.

Chinese manufacturer JA Solar has been chosen as the sole module supplier for an 86MW PV power plant in South Africa.

PV integrator Phoenix Solar is to build a 65MW project in the US state of Nevada for developer Invenergy.