Recently, PV Tech sat down with David Zhao, senior vice president at Sungrow Power Supply and president of the company’s PV & storage division, to gain an insight into the company’s market expectations for 2017, notably outside China, and understand key market and technology trends within the APAC and South East Asia regions, areas that have been key to its continued growth in recent years.
This week's Movers & Shakers covers both expansions into new territories and new business ventures. A long-term member of the Nevada Public Utilities Commission resigns, while the SEIA gains two new board members. Also, GRID Alternatives and Washington DC launch a new solar training programme for low-income residents.
The seasonally soft first quarter of the year for the residential solar rooftop market in the US played out again in 2017, with the addition of much heavier rainfall, notably in California. A basket of primarily US residential installers that are publically listed have recently reported first quarter results.
Iranian investment conglomerate Ghadir and an unnamed partner from Greece have brought a 10MW solar PV plant into operation in the Isfahan province of Iran, according to the country's Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organisation (SATBA).
Vertically-integrated solar firm and industrial goods company Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) had 370MW in its solar PV portfolio at the end of FY2016/17, of which 360MW was ground-mount and 10MW was rooftop.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) launched its new investment plan prioritising how to use US$800 million worth of funds in the next few years, with solar PV innovation one of the main new areas of focus.
NEXTracker has started supplying its single-axis trackers to what it claims to be the largest solar plant in the Western Hemisphere at around 750MW capacity, with more than 200MW of trackers already delivered to the site in Mexico.
Sungrow’s 1500VDC string inverter is designed to significantly reduce installation and balance of system costs for utility-scale PV systems. Sungrow was the first inverter manufacturer to introduce a 1500VDC string inverter with its SG80HV, which has a power output of 80KW. The latest inverter, SG125HV, puts 125kW of capacity in a suitcase-sized cabinet weighing just 68kg. At a higher rated voltage, the SG125HV is claimed to further reduce installation and balance of system costs.
Downer EDI has been awarded an EPC and O&M contract for a 148MW solar farm in Queensland by Palisade Investment Partners (Palisade) and ESCO Pacific (ESCO).
