Visibility on the performance of almost all leading PV module suppliers to the end of the first quarter of 2020 (31 March 2020) is now known, providing a first glimpse of what impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the sector, as most countries started to impose varying degrees of lockdown impacting businesses and ongoing operations.
German utility E.On has partnered with engineering major thyssenkrupp to plug large-scale hydrogen electrolysis plants into Germany’s grid using a renewables-backed virtual power plant (VPP).
Spain’s Solarpack and Italy’s Enel are amongst the winners of Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) latest utility-scale solar tender, which has tempted record-low bids from parties involved.
A round-up of recent developments in the US solar market, including news of Vivint Solar sealing US$300 million of tax equity commitments and Bank of America signing a solar PPA in Texas.
LONGi Solar has introduced its next-generation series of large-area high-performance modules for utility-scale PV power plant markets globally, offering up to 540Wp performance.
Module supplier Trina Solar is to supply 187.5MW of its double-glass Duomax modules to utility EnBW for the Weesow-Willmersdorf solar farm near Germany’s capital, Berlin.
Arizona utility Tucson Electric Power (TEP) has set out plans to provide 70% of its power from solar and wind by 2035, backed up with investment in new energy storage capacity.
French utility EDF is launching a major solar-plus-battery storage hybrid initiative in England and Wales as part of plans to double its installed renewable base.
A total of seven China-based PV manufacturers have officially started efforts to establish a new ‘M10’ (182mm x 182mm p-type monocrystalline) large-area wafer size standard to reduce manufacturing costs throughout the entire solar industry supply chain as the number of large-area wafer sizes have emerged in the last few years.
