Policy

In the last two days the United States and United Kingdom have taken two very different decisions on the future of solar in their countries. As the world seeks to capitalise on the momentum generated by last week’s Paris climate agreement, they are decisions that could have far-reaching consequences.

Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) has launched a programme encouraging consumers to generate their own power from renewable energy sources, with a particular emphasis on solar.

The Government of India is considering supporting polysilicon, ingot and wafer production in India as part of prime minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ programme, that was launched last year.

The UK government has announced 64% cuts to the feed-in tariff, a modest improvement on the 87% cuts proposed in the summer.

The expected ITC extension will open the door to utility-scale solar below four cents per kWh, according to GTM’s vice president of research Shayle Kann.

China has set some ambitious targets for solar deployment over the next five years. Frank Haugwitz assesses what policy and power sector reforms will be required to enable these goals to be met.

In the wake of the proposed extension to the ITC, PV Tech spoke to Shayle Kann of GTM Research on which states will be the big winners, what this means for SolarCity, and whether 'President Trump' would have an easy time dismantling it.

The solar investment tax credit (ITC) is set to be extended beyond 2022 with the current 30% level remaining until 2019.

The lack of relevance of the MIP to global pricing movements during 2015 was the nail in the coffin for Trina, writes Finlay Colville.

Trina Solar has elaborated on its decision to withdraw from the EU-China price undertaking stating that the restrictions within the agreement limited its sales, marketing and manufacturing.