Will Norman

The Italian government has banned solar PV installations on agricultural land in a move that the nation’s solar trade association said would cost Italy €60 billion (US$64.5 billion).

Finnish energy company Ilmatar plans to build a 450MW solar PV project in the county of Halland, southwest Sweden.

Italian solar manufacturing machinery producer Ecoprogetti has installed a new, 250MW automated production line at a facility in Bulgaria.

Future heterojunction technology (HJT) solar cells may require significantly less silver to produce, according to findings from researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE).

US polysilicon manufacturer REC Silicon expects to ship the first solar-grade polysilicon from its Moses Lake, Washington facility by the end of June.

The first two solar PV projects from the sixth round of South Africa’s state renewable energy tender – representing 360MW capacity - have been approved and reached commercial close.

Chinese solar manufacturer Huasun has reported “record-breaking” efficiency figures for its mass-produced heterojunction technology (HJT) solar cells.

US renewables developer energyRe has secured a total of US$240 million to finance the 108MWdc/198MWh Lone Star solar-plus-storage project in South Carolina.

Singapore-headquartered solar manufacturer Gstar Solar has broken ground on a silicon rod and wafer-slicing plant in Indonesia.

An increase in solar module prices is “hard to imagine unless there is a massive shortage in supply”, according to PV Tech head of research Finlay Colville.