Americas

According to GTM Research, global solar PV installations are expected to surpass 104GW in 2018, despite the top four markets, including China, forecasted to decline collectively by 7%.

India-based EPC firm Sterling and Wilson has forayed into hybrid power plants and energy storage solutions and is already in advanced discussions for its first such projects in Africa and Europe.

Leading PV inverter manufacturer Huawei is supplying its string inverters to a 75MW fully-digitalized utility-scale PV project in Brazil, said to be the first of its kind in the country.

A UK start-up is launching a pontoon manufacturing facility in Cumbria with a capacity equivalent of 12MW.

Standard & Poor's (S&P) has lauded the early performance of the solar assets it rates, ultimately concluding that operational risk in solar is “more benign” than other renewable technologies.

The US is expected to remain the world’s biggest market for energy storage until 2022, with China its closest rival, GTM Research has said.

PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow and energy storage system integrator / software specialist Greensmith are working on the first community solar-plus-storage project to be delivered in the US state of Massachusetts.

‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member Canadian Solar said it would build three PV power plants in Brazil, totalling 364MWp in Brazil after securing the projects through Brazil’s latest A-4 auction that was held on April 4, 2018.

Just a few days after Google announced that it had officially hit its 100% renewable energy goal, rival tech giant Apple has now made the same claim.

Leading integrated high-efficiency monocrystalline module manufacturer and ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member LONGi Green Energy Technology set a new solar industry R&D expenditure record in 2017, not only surpassing the two historical leaders, First Solar and SunPower, but also spending more in one year than any PV manufacturer to date.