News

While solar has been the backbone of Japan’s renewable energy push, deployment has been stalling in recent years. Chris Wilkinson of Rystad Energy details the benefits of the country’s feed-in premium scheme, the potential for corporate PPAs and the importance of battery storage.

Its deployed solar was up from 48MW in Q1 2022, but solar deployments dropped sequentially in Q1 2023 mainly due to volatile weather.

Germany has added more than 2.6GW of solar capacity in the first three months of the year, according to The Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur).

Portuguese utility EDP Renováveis has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with consumer goods manufacturing giant Proctor & Gamble.

Spanish renewables developer X-Elio has secured €102 million (US$112 million) for three solar projects in Spain with a total capacity of 147MW.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced US$52 million in financing for research and development (R&D) into domestic solar manufacturing and recycling, including a focus on new technologies.

The project is expected to be operational in the first half of 2024, with the total financial volume estimated at US$245.95 million.

US residential solar installer Sunnova has secured a conditional commitment from the US Department of Energy which will offer up to US$3 billion in a partial loan guarantee.

US-headquartered global renewable energy developer Enfinity Global has signed another power purchase agreement (PPA) with Statkraft for 34GWh of solar energy produced at one of its Italian PV facilities.

Inverter supplier SMA Solar Technology has started the construction of a 20GW inverter factory in Germany expected to be operational in 2025.