China has released its latest five-year plan for the solar industry with a focus on tackling curtailment, improving project quality and further reducing its feed-in tariff.
‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member Trina Solar has set a new world record of 22.61% efficiency for a p-type mono-crystalline cell, with Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC) technology at its State Key Laboratory of PV Science and Technology of China.
Tariffs for utility-scale solar power in India are expected to go below the four rupee (US$0.059) mark next year, which would be a “radical moment” for India’s entire power sector, according to consultancy firm Bridge to India.
Trina Solar’s shareholders have voted by a huge majority to back the company’s plan to pursue privatisation and de-listing from the New York Stock Exchange.
The top 10 states in India have accounted for 90% of the country's solar pipeline and installations, according to a report from Mercom Capital Group. India has installed over 9GW of large-scale solar capacity and boasts a PV pipeline of 14GW as of December 2016, the consultancy said.
A group of 22 MEPs have called on the European Commission to end the minimum import price (MIP) agreement and the punitive trade duties currently placed on Chinese cells and modules.
Driven by steep cost declines in PV equipment, solar is now almost on a par with wind energy and will soon become the cheapest form of energy in developing nations, according to the Climatescope 2016 report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
More than 16,000 Indian households across 800 remote villages will be given a solar panel, with an eight-hour battery storage backup, according to the Indian minister for power, coal, new and renewable energy and mines, Piyush Goyal.
Integrated PV module manufacturer REC Group has reported around a 15% decline in third quarter, 2016 shipments, driven by around an 18% decline in shipments to its largest market, the US.
