Rising demand for green projects in investor portfolios is "broadening the geographic base" of the solar market, with 36 nations set to install more than 1GW of solar by 2029.
The U.S. Senate has approved two candidates for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that were nominated by President Donald Trump, bringing the agency to a full five members.
The importance of the extension of the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC), the removal of import tariffs and increased federal procurement were front and centre in the Solar Energies Industries Association’s (SEIA) wish list for the incoming Biden-Harris administration.
Major PV inverter manufacturer SMA Solar Technology reported a rebound in shipments and sales in the third quarter of 2020, driven by a recovery in demand after its Q2 financials were hit by project slowdowns in Europe and the US due to COVID-19.
Recently, PV-Tech featured an extended interview with Cherif Kedir, the President and CEO at the Renewable Energy Test Center (RETC), based in Fremont, California, regarding new trends in module reliability and performance testing.
As part of a strategy that includes retiring coal-fired power plants by 2040 and reaching net zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050, utility company Alliant Energy has published its ‘Clean Energy Blueprint for Iowa’.
‘Solar Module Super League’ (SMSL) member First Solar is undertaking capacity expansions at its two existing manufacturing plants in Ohio, while evaluating several new international locations to grow its global module sales business as initial Series 6 CdTe thin film module expansion plans come to an end, effectively becoming capacity constrained again from 2021, onwards.
PV Tech’s analysis of ‘Solar Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JA Solar’s capacity expansion announcements in the first nine months of 2020 have revealed the company has already announced a total of over 104GW of combined plans, including ingot/wafer, solar cell and module assembly.
Coming out of stealth-mode, US-based integrated PV panel manufacturing start-up, Violet Power intends to disrupt the PV industry with in-house production of high-efficiency IBC (Interdigitated Back Contact) solar cells. The company will use cell-to-module ‘flex circuit’ and thermal plastic encapsulant technology in a glass/glass configuration that will have a solar panel warranty of 50 years, more than three times the average in the industry, today.
