Namibia in southern Africa is expected to see its first large-scale PV plant come online early next year following a ground-breaking ceremony last week.
The Wold Bank has commissioned the first of many data stations measuring renewable energy potential around the globe in an effort to open up new markets.
Chang Zhou Almaden a major PV glass manufacturer in China is establishing a new manufacturing plant in Dubai to produce 400,000 PV glass substrates per annum.
REC Silicon is to expand polysilicon production at its Moses Lake facility and silane production at its Butte facility, while restarting Silane I production. The company is also undertaking a feasibility study to establish a 20,000MT joint venture polysilicon plant in Saudi Arabia with IDEA Polysilicon.
US PV energy provider, SunPower, has said it will own and operate a new module assembly plant in South Africa to produce its E20/440 high-efficiency PV panels.
Ethiopia could see construction of 300MW of PV across a number of government projects going ahead in just over six months, after the country’s public utility signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a US-headquartered developer.
The president and chief executive officer of Windiga Energy, a Canadian-based independent power producer, said it is now easy to develop renewable energy projects, like PV, in Africa.
TuNur, a 2GW concentrated solar power (CSP) project along the same lines as the original Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii) plan, said the idea for Middle East and North African solar energy exports into Europe is still a valid and needed venture.
