Ben Willis

Namibia in southern Africa is expected to see its first large-scale PV plant come online early next year following a ground-breaking ceremony last week.

Strong growth in solar and wind will make renewable energy generation the world’s leading source of power by 2035, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Jasper, at 96MWp the largest PV power plant in South Africa, has been completed.

Vivint Solar, the newly floated US residential PV installer, has forecast a decrease in deployments in the final quarter of the year, blaming the prospect of harsh winter weather conditions.

France connected 286.3MW of new PV systems in the third quarter of this year, according to the country’s solar association, Enerplan.

Japanese thin-film manufacturer Solar Frontier has said its next-generation fab will trim a third off the cost of producing its CIGS modules.

SunEdison and the Latin American arm of Italian developer Enel Green Power have emerged as two of the big-name winners from Brazil’s successful solar auction last week.

TerraForm Power, the spin-off yield co unit of US PV provider SunEdison, has added to its growing portfolio with 77.6MW of distributed generation solar plants in the US.

Shunfeng Photovoltaic International, the Chinese manufacturing and project developer, is to issue convertible bonds worth around HK$2.8 billion (US$361 million) to fund its ongoing downstream expansion.

Thin-film manufacturer and utility-scale PV plant developer First Solar revealed one of its projects had become the first of its kind to receive a Quality Tested certification from testing institutes VDE and Fraunhofer ISE. Ben Willis spoke to First Solar and VDE to learn more about the process and its wider implications for the large-scale solar sector.