News

Indian railway minister Piyush Goyal has launched 5MW of rooftop solar projects at Hazrat Nizamuddin, New Delhi, Anand Vihar and Delhi railway stations.

US-headquartered engineering and consultancy firm Black & Veatch and engineering services, and certification testing lab, Renewable Energy Test Center (RETC) in California, said they would establish the first of its kind bifacial solar module ranking service.

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is finalising laws that will include penalties for state governments and distribution companies (Discoms) that do not honour power purchase agreements (PPAs), according to power minister R.K. Singh.

Single-axis solar tracker firm Soltec, headquartered in Spain said it expects to double its turnover and supply more than 1.1GW of trackers in 2017.

Thin-film manufacturer First Solar reported record Q3 bookings of 4.5GW taking the company’s order book to 7.4GW for shipments out to 2020.

The bank noted that more than five million people could be reached through solar PV.

EDF Energies Nouvelles and steel maker ArcelorMittal Méditerranée have commissioned a 12MW solar plant in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of south-eastern France.

Solar finance company PEG Africa has raised US$13.5 million for household solar systems in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which is expected to reach up to 500,000 people.

Solar trade association SolarPower Europe has updated its global solar demand forecast for 2017, expecting to reach the 100GW level for the first time.

Kerala’s solar industry is growing well, however it faces a burden in the form of a cap on the percentage of solar that can be added to any single transformer.