Following on from the successful year for solar that was 2016, the US market added 2,044MW of new capacity in Q1 2017 alone. As installations grow, prices continue to fall to new lows and utility-scale system prices dropped below US$1/Watt for the first time according to GTM Research.
Solarcentury continues to expand its presence in the emerging Latin American PV market, this time by completing a 40MW solar park in Chile for local electricity company Energía Cerro El Morado.
News in Brief: SunPower collaborates with Michigan's largest utility for a residential pilot programme, UOSSM's Syria Solar Initiative completes a 127kWp solar system to provide electricity to hospitals, an Australian aboriginal community starts construction on a solar-diesel hybrid project backed by ARENA and Utah's Legend Solar acquires Aspire Energy.
The Ivory Coast plans to build a 25MW solar PV plant in the north of the country in Benguébougou, Korhogo, which will be one of the first solar plants in the country.
Tucson Electric Power (TEP) has entered the US into a new realm of solar at below 3 cents/kWh, after similar prices have been regularly achieved in other countries such as Dubai, Chile and Mexico for over a year now.
Russian PV project developer Hevel Solar — a joint venture between Renova and JSC Rusnano — announced that it has started work on a 10MW solar project that will be developed in the Republic of Buryatia, Siberia, Russia.