Asia & Oceania

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi will visit the UK on 18 April during which he will welcome the European country to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA) as its newest member.

UPDATE: Major Indian solar EPC firm Mahindra Susten has put in the lowest bid for a solar and energy storage tender in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for the second time, having seen its victory in the original auction torn away by authorities as they explored other sources of power generation.

A consortium comprising Zelleco Engineering and Teknik Janakuasa (TJSB), a subsidiary of Malaysian power firm Malakoff, has secured a 21-year O&M contract with ZEC Solar for a 29MW(AC) solar PV project in Kota Tinggi, Johor, Malaysia.

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

The Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has set a new R&D goal to develop a commercially viable thin-film-on-silicon tandem solar cell with 30% conversion efficiencies.

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.

Asia Clean Capital (ACC) has signed a distributed power supply agreement with leading skin care company Nivea (Shanghai) to build a rooftop solar system and solar carport at Nivea's factory in Qingpu, Shanghai.

The Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) has retendered 650MW of solar capacity at the Pavagada Solar Park.

‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member Hanwha Q CELLS said it had discontinued its ingot and wafer manufacturing operations in the fourth quarter of 2017, due to the wafer operations being unprofitable.

Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) has retendered 1GW of solar capacity, and issued an EOI for 1GW of floating PV.