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¡ö Tesla to benefit from Panasonic increasing ¡®HIT¡¯ solar module product warranty

Major Japanese electronics company Panasonic has increased its ¡®HIT¡¯ (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) solar module product warranty from 15 years to 25 years and applies to all HIT modules installed from 2017.

PV Tech recently reported that Panasonic would be responsible for ramping a 1GW cell and module facility for Tesla after cancelling plans to ramp SolarCity¡¯s acquired technology from Silevo at its Gigafactory 2 in RiverBend, Buffalo, New York State.

Although Panasonic noted the 10 year extension on the product warranty for Europe, typically this is announced across all regions in due course.

¡°Today¡¯s 25-year product guarantee announcement delivers on our commitment to manufacture and supply solar modules of the highest reliability and quality for our growing European customer base,¡± stated Daniel Roca, Senior Business Developer at Panasonic. ¡°Since introducing HIT in 1997, the product has forged a reputation of excellent reliability and quality manufacturing standards. This guarantee extension consolidates this reputation, providing European installers and consumers with full confidence and peace of mind when installing our high performance modules in their solar systems.¡±

This year, Panasonic is celebrating 20 years of manufacturing HIT solar cells and modules and has shipped over 1 billion solar cells worldwide and 18 million PV modules.

Although PV modules produced at Tesla¡¯s Gigafactory 2 and not due until 2019, the supply contract enables Panasonic to supply HIT modules from its other facilities in Japan and Malaysia.

( Mar 6,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö GCL companies investing US$290 million in new PV power plant business

Several GCL companies are forming a new joint venture (JV) unit to focus on downstream PV power plants that would be involved in the development, investment, construction and sale of projects with an initial investment of around US$290 million.

Downstream publically listed PV power plant development firm, GCL New Energy, which is an indirect subsidiary of publically listed upstream polysilicon and wafer producer, GCL-Poly is teaming with publically listed PV cell and module manufacturer, GCL System Integrated, via its wholly-owned subsidiary, GCL System Suzhou.

GCL New Energy will hold a 51% equity interests in the JV, while GCL System Suzhou would have a 49% stake. A key aspect in the new business is ensuring PV module supply for projects from GCL System Integrated, while GCL System Suzhou would lead in project development, providing GCL New Energy options to co-develop and sell projects.

According to the companies, the development of PV projects in the JV would reduce the capital commitment required from GCL New Energy compared to developing projects on its own.

( Mar 6,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Singulus wins new CIGS thin-film equipment order from China

Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier Singulus Technologies said it received a new order worth over €20 million from a customer in China.

The new equipment order was for its VISTARIS vacuum sputtering systems as well as its TENUIS II system for wet chemical buffer layer deposition. Singulus said that the payment for the order was expected soon.

The customer was said to be a subsidiary of a major public energy company and producer of solar modules in China. Delivery and equipment commissioning timelines were not disclosed.

Last year, Singulus signed a contract worth around €110 million (US$123 million) for CIGS thin-film production equipment for two 150MW production plants to be built in China using technology from Avancis for CNBM¡¯s entry into BIPV and BAPV markets.

( Mar 6,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Neo Solar Power to shift all production to monocrystalline PERC

Taiwan-based merchant solar cell and module producer Neo Solar Power (NSP) is to phase-out production of multicrystalline products and switch completely to monocrystalline production, according to local news reports.

Recently, SolarWorld became the first major PV manufacturer to announce a shift away from multicrystalline wafer, cell and module production in favour of monocrystalline production using PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Contact) cell technology and also offer bi-facial modules.

¡®Silicon Module Super League¡¯ (SMSL) leader JinkoSolar recently noted that it would expand monocrystalline ingot/wafer capacity and further migration to PERC cell technology with plans to reach 2GW of PERC capacity by the end of 2017, up from 1.4GW in 2016.

Overcapacity in multicrystalline production and slim ASP margins are commercial factors behind NSP and SolarWorld¡¯s recent production shift as well as increasing scale with the higher efficiency monocrystalline products to reduce costs as demand for mono products is growing and is in a relatively shorter supply.

In a presentation at PV CellTech 2016, Bob Chen and Andy Luan from NSP highlighted the advantages in using P-type mono PERC over P-type multi, demonstrating that although total module costs per watt increased by 9.2%, module power increased by 15%. Therefore, the module cost per watt decreased by around 3% to 4% when using P-type mono PERC, compared to P-type multi PERC.

NSP had also announced in April, 2016 that it would also establish a 50MW dedicated N-Type monocrystalline heterojunction (HJ) line that offers higher potential cell and module conversion efficiencies than mono-PERC products.

PV Tech estimates that NSP has around 2.2GW of total solar cell capacity of which around 700MW was primarily dedicated to monocrystalline cell production. The company has relocated around 100MW of mono cell production from its 500MW cell plant in Malaysia to Vietnam and migrate around 500MW of capacity in Taiwan to mono-PERC.

Overall timelines for the migration of all capacity to mono was not disclosed.

( Mar 6,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Fortum commissions the biggest battery in Finland

Saft has provided a 2 MW lithium-ion battery for a Fortum power plant in Jarvenpaa, Finland. Fortum will receive a 30% subsidy from Finland¡¯s government towards the €1.6 m cost of the project.

Finnish clean energy firm Fortum has commissioned a lithium-ion battery in conjunction with its biomass-fired power plant in Jarvenpaa, north of Helsinki. The battery, which was delivered by French manufacturer Saft, has a nominal output of 2 MW and an energy capacity of 1 megawatt-hour (MWh), as Fortum reported on Wednesday.

The battery¡¯s approximately 6600 lithium-ion cells offer second- and minute-level grid flexibility in frequency regulation. This is needed due to increasing electricity generation from variable energy sources in Finland, such as wind and solar.

¡°Our Batcave project takes us a big step closer towards the solar economy, where electricity storage plays an important role alongside renewable energy production forms¡° said Tatu Kulla, Fortum's head of business. The electricity battery brings flexibility to the national electricity market, benefiting all electricity users.¡°

Fortum will receive a 30 per cent energy investment subsidy from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment for its Batcave project, worth €1.6 million. The name refers to ¡°battery cave¡±, a construction container equipped with the latest battery technology and created as a test environment for new ideas.

Last year in May Fortum and Saft launched a similar project at Fortum¡¯s combined heat and power plant Suomenoja in Espoo, Finland¡¯s second largest city. However the Finnish company changed its plan due to a higher technical feasibility to connect the battery with the 2013-commissioned power plant in Jarvenpaa, as Fortum Project Manager Roosa Nieminen told pv magazine.

£¨Mar 4,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

Having confirmed the 18-month extension of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on imports of Chinese solar cells and modules, the European Commission (EC) has initiated a partial interim review into what form the punitive duties should take.

The EC noted in its official journal that changes in technological development and efficiency gains in the industry have made a review necessary into whether the minimum import price (MIP) adequately takes into account the effect that these changes have on the import prices of the relevant solar equipment.

The EC went on to cite the large number of manufacturers that had voluntarily left the MIP as a major reason to reassess whether the mechanism is still appropriate.

It also suggested that on current evidence, the most appropriate change would be to band the anti-subsidy and countervailing measures into a variable duty. All imports with a declared value at or above the MIP would then no longer be subject to duties and this variable MIP could be regularly adjusted to reflect progress in technology and efficiency gains, as and when necessary.

The review will cover a full three-year period from 2014-2016 for its evidence, and the Chinese government has also been invited for consultations

James Watson, SolarPower Europe chief executive, said: ¡°Today the European Commission started the first action in the process of phasing out the deeply unpopular trade measures on solar panels and cells. The interim review appears to suggest that the duties and the MIP will be replaced with one single variable MIP that will be regularly adjusted to reflect market developments. It is very important that any new mechanism does reflect the market today, as the former MIP became obsolete based on its failure to reflect the market to even the tiniest degree."

Milan Nitzschke, president of EU ProSun and VP at SolarWorld told PV Tech: ¡°EU Prosun is supporting the general idea of an interim review of the measures, because we all know that there are a lot of inefficiencies currently in the system.

¡°A lot of companies opted out from the undertaking. There¡¯s also a lot of violation, a lot of circumvention and so on. [¡­] On the other hand you have a lot of insecurity about where will the minimum price be in three months or so. Therefore there are a lot of reasons to review. Now finally the commission has opened one and that makes perfect sense.¡±

Nitzschke also called for an MIP which is both ¡°transparent¡± and ¡°predictable¡±, so that market participants can make calculations with a minimum price many months in advance.

He added: ¡°I understand the general aim of the interim review as it is described in the official journal today as heading in that direction.¡±

Discussing the possible application of a variable MIP, he said this should mean that the MIP will only go down, rather than going up, which will help certain stakeholders in the industry to relax. However, he stressed that the MIP should go down only at a ¡°reasonable rate¡±. Finally, he added that such measures should help customs authorities enforce the MIP better.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Sri Lanka to tender 100MW floating solar plant, funds module R&D

Sri Lanka will go ahead with an international tender to set up a 100MW floating solar plant on the Maduru Oya Reservoir in the eastern part on the island.

The Cabinet of Ministers approved the programme for solar to cover around 4% of the reservoir, the equivalent of 202 hectares.

This is the first step in a previously approved wider plan to set up floating PV plants on various dams and reservoirs, which are governed by the Mahaweli Authority, across Sri Lanka.

The proposal was put forward jointly by president Maithripala Sirisena, in his capacity as the minister of Mahaweli development and environment, as well as Susil Premajayantha, minister of science, technology and research, and Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, minister of power and renewable energy.

In related news, as part of goals to generate 20% of the island¡¯s electricity via renewables by 2020, the Cabinet had approved the implementation of a training programme for prototype manufacturing of solar panels last April - to be run by four university professors. The Cabinet has now also appoved an extra LKR80 million (US$530,000) allocation to obtain the necessary equipment, chemicals and consumer goods for the training programme.

PV progress has been muted in Sri Lanka, although PV Tech understands there is strong interest at a high level to carry out large-scale solar auctions - not just on reservoirs - with discussions ongoing. Meanwhile, Spanish firm Grupo Clavijo recently supplied trackers to the 12.56MW Solar One Ceylon solar PV plant on the island.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Movers & Shakers: Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lark Energy, Vaisala, KYOCERA and more

Glasspoint Solar accelerates work in California

Glasspoint Solar, leading solar supplier to the oil and gas industry, last week announced new appointments to accelerate its projects in California.

Jeffery Kennedy has joined as senior director of project finance, and Tunde Deru has joined as director of sales, Americas.

The further expansion into the Golden State follows Glasspoints successful commercial project at Berry Petroleum in Kern County.

Deru joins Glasspoint from Berry Petroleum ¨C which has now rebranded as LINN Energy. It was here that he was first introduced to GlassPoint¡¯s technology and pilot project.

¡°I joined Berry Petroleum shortly after GlassPoint¡¯s pilot was commissioned and kept a close eye on it throughout the years as it demonstrated its reliability on the oilfield,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m confident that GlassPoint¡¯s proven solar technology, made in California and deployed around the world, can help move Bakersfield¡¯s oil industry forward.¡±

Kennedy on the other hand is an industry veteran, and brings more than 20 years¡¯ experience in project finance to his new role. He was previously director in project finance at SunPower, and spent eight years at McKinsey & Co in China prior to that.

¡°I am excited to join an organization that is leading deployment of solar for the oil and gas industry, an enormous untapped market to scale renewable energy,¡± said Kennedy.

UK¡¯s Lark Energy makes key hires for US office

UK-based Lark Energy has made key appointments to continue to oversee the development of its North American operations.

The company¡¯s Maryland office will receive a new project manager and two land agents who will scout sites for future project development.

Emma Rafaluk has been appointed as vice president of Lark Energy¡¯s US business with responsibility for overseeing all American operations, and Isaac Bainbridge joins as a project manager to provide a link between US consultants and the UK senior management team.

Commenting on the new USA management team appointments Paul Adams, joint managing director of Lark Energy, said: ¡°Lark Energy USA is tasked with bringing forward development sites on the East Coast of the USA for solar farms. The VP and project manager appointments will provide the business with a team well placed to deliver subsidy-free solar power generation projects in North America.¡±

Kyocera names Hideo Tanimota as new president

Japanese fine ceramics manufacturer Kyocera has named Hideo Tanimoto as new company president, effective 1 April, following a unanimous board vote.

Tanimoto will succeed current president Goro Yamaguchi who will become company chairman and executive officer instead.

Tanimoto has been at Kyocera for 35 years, where he has been instrumental in developing new materials and manufacturing processes as an engineer in fine ceramic components. He was appointed general manager of the company¡¯s Corporate Fine Ceramics Group in 2014 and joined the board of directors in 2016.

¡°Today, Kyocera supplies a diverse range of products, from semiconductor components and electronic devices to solar modules, document equipment and mobile phones,¡± said Yamaguchi. ¡°At our core is the fine ceramic components business, which has continued to grow in step since the company¡¯s founding in 1959. Tanimoto will bring best practices from that pioneering division and implement fresh ideas to help maximize profits for all Kyocera business units.¡±

New managing director appointed at Vaisala renewables subsidiary

3TIER India, the renewable energy subsidiary of Finnish environmental and industrial manufacturer Vaisala, has appointed a new managing director to lead its wind and solar services.

Rajnikanth Umakanthan joins from Underwriters Laboratories, where he was head of business development for Greater Asia and the Middle East. Umakanthan has extensive experience in the development of renewable energy regulations and the adoption of safety and performance standards for PV equipment, wind turbines and utility-scale energy storage systems.

¡°Over the past nine years, 3TIER India has established itself as the leading provider of weather data, energy due diligence services and measurement equipment to the Indian solar and wind industries,¡± said Umakanthan in a statement. ¡°As the domestic renewable energy market has grown, so too has demand from project stakeholders for high-quality equipment and independent analysis.¡±

Finland-headquartered Vaisala established Bangalore-based 3TIER India in 2008. Its pipeline contains more than 50GW of wind and solar capacity.

Spain¡¯s next renewable tender to create 3,000 solar jobs

The solar industry in Asturias, Spain is expected to skyrocket as a result of the forthcoming renewable energy auctions recently announced by the government.

The solar segment is already strong in Asturias; with 634 installations accounting for 3% of overall electrical generation capacity in the region. It currently employs around 1,890 and this figure could increase by 960 new direct jobs in construction for the 2GW of solar PV scheduled to be won under the tenders, according to a study conducted by the UNEF delegation in Asturias.

The upcoming auctions, as well as the development of more favourable self-consumption rules, are "good opportunities for the Spanish market to reactivate and for these companies to generate jobs and economic wealth in our country, helping to avoid relocation,¡± according to UNEF delegate Javier Fern¨¢ndez.

Fellow delegate Fern¨¢ndez Font affirms that the most important change involves moving from a bidding model based on variables that pit the competitiveness of one technology over the other, to a model based on the price offered and the kWh; where the bidder who presents the lowest price wins.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures Hires Eric Toone and David Danielson for Scientific Leadership Team

Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), the US$1 billion fund for clean energy technology led by Bill Gates, has made two appointments to its Scientific Leadership team.

Eric Toone is executive managing director and science lead, with David Danielson as managing director for science. The two are the first employees hired on the BEV science team since the fund was announced in December last year to finance emerging technology with the potential to deliver affordable, reliable, zero-carbon energy.

BEV board member John Arnold said the pair were chosen for their ¡°deep scientific expertise¡± that will be required to fulfil the fund¡¯s goal of transforming the energy market.

"They understand the unique complexities of the energy technology landscape and what it will take to build the breakthroughs that will power the world in the future," he said.

Danielson joins BEV from Stanford University where he is a Precourt Energy Scholar. Prior to that, he spent seven years at the US Department of Energy, including four years as assistant secretary of energy heading the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Likewise, Toone also has DOE experience; in 2009 he was a founding member of its Advanced Research Projects Agency. He was most recently the leader of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative at Duke University.

Toone caught up with PV Tech to discuss the elusive energy fund, which features the richest group of investors ever assembled.

PV Tech: How did it come about that you got involved with BEV?

Eric Toone: They reached out to me around Thanksgiving of last year. They are sort of people that I knew at my time at DOE but I was not looking for this ¨C they found me.

What made you decide to join?

Are you serious?! This is an opportunity of a lifetime. This is just an unbelievable opportunity to try cleantech again in a different way with an incredible group of people to build it from the ground up. This is an unbelievable opportunity, one that there's absolutely no way to pass up.

What differentiates BEV from other cleantech funds?

I think a lot of things do. The fund has been organised as a 20-year instead of a 10-year fund. One of the criticisms with funding cleantech out of traditional venture funds is that the time constants aren't meshed. This is much more patient money. We are not doing it at a ¡®2 and 20¡¯ model; it is kind of a hybrid between a family office and venture fund.

We all obviously have an unbelievable group of LPs, we have access to the whole Breakthrough Energy Coalition. We've structured the fund internally in quite a different way; we have a technical team and an investment team that will operate in close collaboration, but are two distinct entities within the organisation and co-equals at the same time.

What does your role as managing director and science lead entail?

My role in the company is to manage the technical side of things, and Dave is with me on that team. So the fund is structured differently in a number of important ways that I think help it better fit the needs of the unique cleantech space. We have a great organisation around us, and a great set of LPs.

The idea here is that the way that we will evaluate investment - there will be an investment side of the organisation, and we are in the process of trying to identify and bring on board an individual who will lead that side of the organisation - and there is the technical side. The idea is that both the investment side and the technical side will be out there combing the universe for incredible opportunities. We will evaluate each opportunity through the lens of both the investment side of things, and the technical side of things. And only when both sides are in agreement that there is an opportunity, will we go forward.

Do we know anyone else as of yet who will join the Scientific Leadership team?

People are being identified, we have a very specific set of characteristics for people that we are looking for, and we are actively recruiting those people. We hope to have a couple more principals like Dave on board by the summer. I think you'll also see us make some additional hires of people who will help support the organisation.

Is there anything you could tell us on what BEV is working on at the moment or of things in the pipeline?

We haven't brought on board an investment lead yet, so we're not in a position to be making investments now. We are building the team and standing up the organisation, so no specific investment at the moment.

What is your view of solar energy? We know Bill Gates, who set up the fund, is less than a fan of the technology as a solution for developing countries. Do we know what plans BEV has in store for solar?

I don't think it¡¯s fair to lump everything that converts solar photons into electricity as solar right? As you know, it's much more complicated than that. Solar prices have come down unbelievably over a relatively short period of time, and I think the changing cost structure of solar changes the way that you view the technology. Storage obviously is still an issue in firming renewables and turning intermittent power into base load power. I think there are some exciting new opportunities there. I think that there are new industrial processes that could be enabled by incredibly cheap solar energy as well. So, I guess that's the way that I would look at it.

It depends what you mean by solar. Would BEV try to build a competitor to First Solar? No, I don't think that we would do that. But I think that solar energy is advancing in ways that enable all sorts of technologies that no one has ever really thought of before and we are going to investigate those.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Foresight targets new 250MW UK pipeline with fresh placing

UK-based Foresight Solar Fund has set its sights on a new pipeline of solar assets with a capacity of 250MW and announced a new share issuing and placing programme to fund it.

This morning the asset owner announced its intention to raise more than ¡ê50 million through an initial issue and placing programme, with up to 250 million new shares being issued in total over the coming 12 months.

Stating that the company still regards the UK solar market as an attractive one for investment ¨C ¡°particularly given the recent recovery in wholesale power prices,¡± Foresight said ¨C the company confirmed that its investment manager has highlighted and continues to evaluate an operational pipeline worth 250MW.

The evaluation of a 250MW pipeline comes just weeks after Foresight concluded its most recent spending spree, acquiring more than 120MW of operational solar split between two of the UK¡¯s largest sites.

A prospectus is expected to be published shortly, but Foresight did disclose that it is currently intended that the proceeds from the initial issues will be used first and foremost to repay revolving credit facilities (RCFs) which have been used to fund recent acquisitions.

Foresight¡¯s current draw down from its RCFs amounts to ¡ê95 million, which will be repaid either in full of in part.

Remaining net proceeds ¨C and credit remaining in the RCFs ¨C will then be used to commit to further acquisitions.

Foresight is expected to set the pricing for its initial placing on 14 March prior to the company¡¯s general meeting on 22 March. The results will be published a week later with shares despatched on or around 10 April.

Meanwhile the placing programme is to open on 4 April 2017 with the last date for new shares to be issued on 2 March 2018.

Foresight has also placed a secondary listing with the securities exchange operated by the JSE in South Africa, having noted significantly rising interest from South African investors following the success of the country's renewable energy programme. the placement is a way around certain limitations set on South African investors looking to invest outside their own nation.

Foresight Group also recently entered Australia by acquiring a 25MW solar farm in Queensland, Australia, from Elecnor Australia.

Additional reporting by Tom Kenning.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö ROUND UP: Telangana EMI rooftops, Conergy Japan plant sale, ReneSola NYSE compliance

India's Telangana to introduce rooftop solar scheme with Equated Monthly Installments

The Indian state of Telangana is planning a rooftop solar programme using Equated Monthly Installments (EMI), according to consultancy firm Mercom Capital Group.

The state government has been in talks with banks over the programme.

Under the plans, any household will be able to install solar on its rooftop and the cost of the systems can be paid through EMIs.

Tata Power Renewable Energy (TPREL) recently installed a 15MW solar plant in Telangana.

Conergy sells 3.75MW solar plant in Japan
Conergy Japan, a subsidiary of Conergy, has sold a 3.75MW solar plant in Sannohe, Aomori Prefecture to an unnamed entity.

Conergy Japan collaborated with Center Denki KK on the local construction of the Sannohe Solar Power 1 GK (SSP1) plant. It is located on a 9.755 hectare site and has been operational since December of last year. The plant is expected to produce approximately 4,166MWh of clean energy annually.

The energy supplied by the plant is being sold to Tohoku Electric Power Corporation through a 20-year power purchase agreement.

ReneSola regains compliance with NYSE's continued listing requirements
ReneSola has regained compliance with the NYSE's continued listing requirement of a minimum average closing price of US$1.00 per share over a 30-trading-day period, according to a notice received from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

In November last year the company has received a notice from NYSE notifying that ReneSola¡¯s price per share was below the minimum requirement. To regain compliance ReneSola executed a share ratio change which came into effect on 10 February this year.

Vivint Solar expands to Orlando, Florida

US residential PV installer Vivint Solar is to expand its affordable solar energy systems to Orlando, it¡¯s second region in Florida.

The firm believes that Florida, particularly Orlando, holds great potential for solar power. Prospects in the state have been boosted by the rejection of the controversial Amendment 1.

Last month, Vivint also surpassed more than 100,000 PV energy systems installed for residential solar customers.

Toyota¡¯s new Prius to use Panasonic PV module

Panasonic Corporation has developed a solar module for the new Prius PHV released in February 2017 by Toyota Motor Corporation

Panasonic will also be providing its automotive prismatic lithium-ion batteries

To create its HIT Photovoltaic Module for Automobile, Panasonic has worked on the development of new applications of solar cells through its experience with modules for residential, public and industrial use.

The cells combine a crystalline silicon substrate and an amorphous silicon film. The solar cells allow a a roughly 180W output in a limited area on a car's roof, enabling the charging of the drive lithium-ion batteries as well as 12V batteries.

Panasonic has also developed technologies to laminate three-dimensional curved glass to match the new Prius PHV's body design.

In a blog today, Mark Osborne explains the ditching of Silevo technology at Tesla¡¯s Buffalo fab run by Panasonic

Engie and Schneider Electric partner on digitizing solar and wind
Power giant Engie has partnered energy management and automation Schneider Electric to explore and deploy new digital solutions for operational efficiency of wind and solar PV assets.

The two firms will leverage Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Historian and related application software powered by Schneider Electric¡¯s Wonderware brand.

They will also investigate asset management, SCADA obsolescence management, remote monitoring and diagnostics and cybersecurity.

ENGIE and Schneider Electric welcome this collaboration as a major joint initiative in the digitization of the energy sector.

Schneider Electric has already partnered with Engie for monitoring and management of its European wind and solar power installations.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Rick Perry confirmed as US Secretary of Energy

Former Texas governor Rick Perry was confirmed as the new Department of Energy Secretary yesterday in a 62-37 vote by the Senate.

Those who voted in favour, including 11 Democrats and all Republicans in the chamber, were willing to forget Perry¡¯s former vow to abolish the Department.

Perry will now run the department that ensures America¡¯s security via overseeing its nuclear arsenal and its energy and environmental challenges.

That being said, Perry has been a controversial choice for the job, given his aversion to climate science; once calling it a ¡°contrived phony mess¡± but later conceding that he does believe in it, although US efforts to mitigate it should not cost American jobs. However, during his confirmation hearing, Perry said he believed that both natural and man-made activity were contributing to climate change. He also told senators that he would seek to preserve energy research funding and climate programmes at the DOE.

"I will be an advocate. I will be in the room advocating for these types of things," Perry said. "I'm not going to tell you I'll be there 1000% successful in that, but I can assure you and the people who know me ... know my commitment to making sound science, economic science, connected together."

Perry will head the Department of Energy after serving as governor of Texas ¨C a top oil producing state ¨C from 2000-2015. Whilst he was a significant champion of coal during his tenure, he also played a vital role in producing millions of new energy jobs and lowering electricity prices as well as a boom in wind production.

The main criticism Perry has faced in regards to his appointment aside from his hesitance on anthropogenic climate change, is his lack of experience in nuclear matters in contrast to former energy secretary Ernest Moinz who is a nuclear physicist.

"Perry would join the ranks of other unqualified candidates chosen by this president to lead critically important agencies with very specific and complex functions," said senator Patty Murray, during the vote.

Mixed reception

Kit Kennedy, director of the Energy and Transportation Programme at the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC)

¡°Rick Perry is known for rejecting scientific findings. He'll now head a research agency and control our nuclear stockpile. He'll need to embrace science, or he could put our safety at risk. Perry's known for ties to dirty energy. Now, he has the chance to put clean energy and energy efficiency first. These money-saving, job-creating policies benefit all Americans--just like the wind power that swept through Texas while he was governor.¡±
Mary Boeve, executive director of environmental group 350.org

¡°Trump just added one more unqualified fossil fuel shill and climate-denier to his cabinet. As governor, Perry doled out millions to oil corporations while silencing the science that tells us our future depends on keeping fossil fuels in the ground. In April, we¡¯ll be in the streets with tens of thousands of people defending that science, demanding a just transition to a clean energy economy, and resisting Big Oil¡¯s grasp on our government.¡±
Malcolm Woolf, senior vice president for policy and government affairs Advanced Energy Economy

"As governor of Texas, Rick Perry saw first-hand the positive economic impact as the Lone Star state diversified its energy production mix, resulting in more than 143,000 advanced energy jobs, success integrating more wind onto the grid than anywhere else, improving energy efficiency, and now experiencing a solar boom. We look forward to working with DOE Secretary Perry, to continue this significant business opportunity to expand advanced energy that now supports more than 3 million workers across the nation."

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö PV CellTech Talk: Srinvasamohan Narayanan, advisor PV strategy and technology to Adani Group

Although PV manufacturing in India has a long history, few companies have reached the scale required to be competitive in global markets. However, solar installations in India reached over 4GW in 2016, compared to around 2.3GW in 2015 as new government policies build momentum.

Adani Group is one of the largest Indian multinational conglomerates and has committed to becoming a major PV manufacturer and downstream project developer that has acted quickly to build its first major solar cell and module assembly facilities in the country.

First phase plans included 1.2GW of multicrystalline and monocrystalline solar cell and module assembly, including 900MW of multi-c-Si cell, 200MW of Mono-c-Si PERC production and 100MW of bifacial production. Future plans also include a further 1.8GW of cell and module production at facilities being built in Mundra, Gujarat, India.

Senior members of Adani Group responsible for PV manufacturing attended the inaugural PV CellTech in Malaysia in 2016 and represent the momentum in large-scale PV manufacturing in the country that others are striving to emulate, making India an exciting market both upstream and downstream.

Finlay Colville, Solar Media¡¯s head of solar intelligence and chair of PV CellTech recently grabbed some sound bites from Srinvasamohan Narayanan, Technology Advisor, to the Adani Group and a presenter at this years PV CellTech conference in Penang, Malaysia.

Welcome Srinvasamohan Narayanan, Technology Advisor, to the Adani Group, and thank-you for agreeing to be one of our invited speakers at the forthcoming PV CellTech 2017 conference in Penang, Malaysia on 14-15 March 2017. What are the general topics that you will be covering during your invited talk at PV CellTech 2017?

Historical perspective on cell technology commercialization and key enablers; convergence of regional specifications on module to application/climate driven requirement; Adani GW cell and module factory; technology mix; Adani advantage.

Adani has been receiving significant press coverage regarding your GW fab in Mundra. What drove Adani to move with such an ambitious project in India for cell and module manufacturing?

- We believe that as part of our contribution to Nation building - providing energy security and giving electricity access to the millions, we need a more balanced energy mix including all sources.
- We analyzed the market and found that India would need more than US$100 billon over next seven years in meeting the renewable energy target with a significant impact on forex reserves.
- Hence we decided to develop in India large-scale and integrated manufacturing with technology and market focus

Have there been any challenges in the fab design so far? And how has Adani been engaging with equipment and material suppliers ahead of the full ramp-up?

- The project of this size cannot happen with its own share of challenges, that too under an aggressive schedule
- It should be noted that unlike China, India lacks the PV ecosystem
- But Adani group is known for its project management capability, we have created many teams focusing on key packages and ensured strict co-ordination among them. There was a close monitoring by top management on weekly basis
- We have finished the project in around 15 months (which is an achievement as per the Indian conditions)

In terms of technology, how did you make the decision on mono or multi, without any previous cell manufacturing experience?

- Our strategy is simple ¨C we will do Development and delivery in parallel
- We have invested in leading technologies based on rigorous market analysis
- We have acquired top talent both from India and abroad for manufacturing, quality, customer service, technology etc.
- At same time we have optimized the portfolio with mass demand products to generate cash flow in short run
- We will keep innovating based on the road map and market demand.

And what about getting the skilled workforce in place - has this been difficult?

- Yes. Indeed as we started in an area where there were not many solar manufacturing plants in vicinity. But there are many technical colleges and institutes near by towns.
- We have meticulously planned for the training of fresh graduates and re-skilling of operators etc.
- It is very gratifying to see fresh graduates acquiring expertise in operating a sophisticated solar manufacturing facility.

Like many of the global markets, India is seeing increased imports from low-cost Chinese modules. What will Adani's differentiation be?

- Our module quality and performance is comparable to top global module manufacturers and we will be price competitive.
- We have much better financial position as a group and customers see that as a big comfort for the product warranty.
- We are setting up cell/module research facility and will be using group resources ¨C Adani Institute of Infrastructure, etc¡­ to develop modules for future applications.

Will most of the module shipments be to the domestic market? Are established markets like Europe, the US and Australia also likely to see much penetration from Adani product?

- It will be a mix of domestic sales and exports. We already have presence in most of the developed markets

And finally, what are you hoping to learn at PV CellTech? Are there certain technology areas you are looking forward to getting more information on?

- We are eager to also understand POV on the technology roadmap from the industry and on critical issues faced in market demand and high volume manufacturing.

To view the final PV CellTech agenda updates, please follow this link. To register for the event, click here.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö INDEOtec to supply Saudi Arabia¡¯s KAUST with heterojunction solar cell deposition system

Swiss-based PV manufacturing equipment specialist INDEOtec SA has secured a new order for a combined OCTOPUS II ¨C PECVD/PVD deposition system for high-efficiency and heterojunction solar cell development from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

The company has won a series of orders for the OCTOPUS II as research builds momentum for next-generation heterojunction solar cells.

Prof. Stefaan De Wolf, Associate Professor at KAUST said, ¡°At KAUST we have been specifically looking for a deposition system offering high flexibility, proven reliability and very low maintenance requirements, all of which we can find at INDEOtec¡¯s OCTOPUS II platform.¡±

PV Tech recently profiled INDEOtec and its CEO, Dr. Omid Shojaei as an advisory board member, presenter and sponsor of the PV CellTech conference being held in Penang, Malaysia in the next few weeks.

The OCTOPUS II cluster tool enables double-sided HJ cell passivation and junction layer deposition for heterojunction cell architectures.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Huawei targeting 2GW of inverter shipments into Japan this year

Chinese tech giant Huawei was showcasing two sets of PV inverters for the Japanese market at this week¡¯s PV Expo, with the company targeting 2GW of shipments into the country this year according to representatives.

Huawei shipped 1.06GW of inverters into Japan last year and is hoping to almost double that figure this year, a spokesman said. The company, which also makes mobile smartphones and other hardware, showed off string inverters as well as data loggers for large-scale, high voltage and super high voltage applications at the show in Tokyo. The inverters, available in 33kW or 40kW configurations, have eight strings each and four MPPTs (maximum power point trackers). They have two DC switches, controlling four strings each, as well as AC connectors and communication lines.

The inverters only weigh 55kg each, making them easy to handle and install for two people, the spokesmen said. The use of multiple MPPTs meanwhile is considered particularly apt for Japan, where due to the often mountainous or uneven terrain and limited space, PV arrays may be generating differing outputs from different strings of panels.

According to Huawei the inverters are also very reliable with only 0.5% cumulative defect ratio. Additionally, they do not include so-called ¡°vulnerable parts¡± like fans or fuses, which require frequent inspection and / or replacement.

These products were already available last year, but at this year¡¯s show Huawei also brought inverters for the commercial market, for projects up to 50kW. These inverters (pictured) recently won a prestigious Red Dot design award, and are in 4.125kW and 4.95kW models, requiring either 12 or 10 to be used together to make up to 49.5kW.

These weigh just 10kg and Huawei representatives claimed they can be installed in just 15 minutes by one installer, with DC and AC connections simply snapping into place. They are also connected to Huawei¡¯s mobile monitoring cloud and public internet.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö International PV players ready for Japan¡¯s large-scale tenders

The prospect of Japan introducing a tender system for large-scale solar project rights from this year does not phase international companies doing PV business in Japan, who have said they are ready for the new policy.

Dr Shawn Qu, CEO of Canadian Solar, and Terry Zhao, CEO of Chinese inverter company Sungrow¡¯s Japanese subsidiary both told PV Tech that the prospect of annual 500MW auctions for PV projects over 2MW is not an obstacle to their ambitions in the region.

¡°We are prepared. We are ready to participate in the tenders under the new rules,¡± Qu said.

¡°Competition is always there,¡± he added when asked if the new auction system would lead to aggressive price competition across the industry.

¡°Even with the FiT, it has already dropped several times and now the tenders will allow some market elements into this process. But there have been tendering mechanisms in many other countries where Canadian Solar participates, so we are not surprised at all, we will be fully prepared and will participate."

Ontario-headquartered Canadian Solar recently connected a 24MWp PV plant in Yamaguchi Prefecture, bringing its total portfolio in operation in Japan to 46MWp. That project was awarded the feed-in tariff (FiT) rate of £¤40 (US$0.35)/kWh, applicable in 2013, the second year of Japan¡¯s large-scale FiT scheme.

Although the FiT rate has since fallen drastically, this year dropping to just £¤21/kWh for projects to be awarded under the tender, Canadian Solar has a further pipeline in Japan of 167MWp of projects under construction and 66MWp of projects ready to go, all at higher FiT rates than this year¡¯s reduced rate.

¡°We still have a good inventory of high FiT projects that will take a few more years to build out. [Furthermore], we¡¯ve been in this business for 16 years. We know that grid parity is the ultimate goal and we think we can beat conventional energy sources on price, so [the lowering of the FiT rate] was not a surprise to us at all,¡± Qu said.

Inverter maker welcomes increased competition through tenders

Meanwhile, Sungrow Japan, which has a target to supply 200MW of inverters in the country this year, wants to be in the country long-term, CEO Terry Zhao said.

¡°Unlike some other Chinese companies, we want to be in business in Japan for 20, 30 years from now,¡± Zhao said.

The company has introduced two inverters to the Japanese market, including a central inverter solution specifically for 2MW+ PV plants, meaning it has a lot at stake in Japan¡¯s megasolar (local term for large-scale) market. Zhao said that Japan¡¯s falling FiT would not deter the company.

¡°The FiT will drop to £¤21 next month, but even that is dearer than in other countries. In the Japanese market, costs are very high so we and panel makers need to bring whole system costs down. The FiT could still drop to £¤20 or £¤18 and we would still be ok [as an industry],¡± Zhao said.

Sungrow welcomes the introduction of tenders, according to Zhao.

¡°It is good news for us, because [to be successful] in auctions, you have to lower costs. For lower costs, if the inverter is cheaper, it¡¯s not enough. But we can make the whole system cheaper, with 10% payback [in Japan]. For our inverters, the transformer will be cheaper in some cases. With some other inverter makers you need two transformers for just 1MW of PV. With ours, for a 2MW system you can use just one transformer instead of two. These technical aspects will make our customers win the auctions [we hope]. We see it as a positive step,¡± Zhao said.

What may make the process more complex and difficult for some are new rules governing the right to connect to Japan¡¯s regional grid network, Izumi Kaizuka, a market research expert at Tokyo-based RTS PV, told PV Tech. In addition to securing rights through auctions, project developers must also enter what could be lengthy discussions with whichever of Japan¡¯s 10 regional utilities ¨C which are also the country¡¯s grid operators ¨C to get their PV plants grid-tied, which is a necessity to receive the FiT.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Amazon to install 41MW of rooftop solar by end of 2017

Amazon announced Thursday that it has launched a new initiative to generate renewable energy by installing solar panels atop its fulfillment facilities around the world.

As part of the initiative, Amazon plans to develop large-scale PV systems on rooftops of over 15 fulfillment and sortation centers in the US in 2017 ¡ª along with 50 fulfillment and sortation centers globally by 2020.

The first wave of rooftop projects planned for completion by the end of 2017 will produce up to 41MW of generation capacity at Amazon facilities in California, New Jersey, Maryland, Nevada and Delaware.

While each rooftop project varies in terms of expected power output, a solar installation could generate as much as 80% of a facility¡¯s yearly energy needs.

Dave Clark, senior vice president of worldwide operations at Amazon, said: ¡°As our fulfillment network continues to expand, we want to help generate more renewable energy at both existing and new facilities around the world in partnership with community and business leaders. We are putting our scale and inventive culture to work on sustainability¡ªthis is good for the environment, our business and our customers. By diversifying our energy portfolio, we can keep business costs low and pass along further savings to customers. It¡¯s a win-win.¡±

To date, Amazon has announced or started construction on projects which will produce a total of 3.6 million MW of renewable energy.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ï SolarWorld US appreciates Trump¡¯s tough trade talk

The panel manufacturer, which operates a production facility in Hillsboro, Ore,, hopes the president¡¯s call for strict enforcement of U.S. trade laws will give it, as well as other domestic panel companies, a fighting chance against a flood of subsidized Chinese panels.

When President Donald J. Trump talks about improving enforcement of U.S. trade laws, it¡¯s music to SolarWorld¡¯s ears ¨C and it hopes the tough talk is backed by tough actions.

In the document released Wednesday, Trump says it¡¯s nearly impossible for U.S. companies to compete against foreign imports that are typically subsidized by the governments of those countries. The document, in keeping with Trump¡¯s rhetoric on trade since the campaign, focuses primarily on China. The document calls for clear trade rules, as well as the use and enforcement of trade-defense instruments to restore fair competition and maintain efficient markets.

¡°[The United States] will not tolerate these unfair trade practices that harm American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses,¡± the trade-agenda document says. ¡°These practices lower living standards for all Americans by distorting U.S. and global markets and preventing resources from being allocated in the most efficient manner.¡±

In the past two years, the Chinese manufacturers have overproduced solar panels in response to unrealistic domestic solar-installation goals set by the Chinese government. Once again, SolarWorld is concerned that the fallout will echo the 2011 panel-price collapse and put immense pressure on U.S. panel manufacturers whose margins are already extraordinarily tight.

Stein says the company welcomes the emphasis on trade law enforcement in light of its potential to save U.S. jobs and manufacturing.

¡°We cannot allow China now to monopolize the sun by violating trade rules and engaging in unfair competition,¡± says Juergen Stein, U.S. president of SolarWorld. ¡°Trade defense is necessary to address the fact that non-market economies such as China are strategically building up state-financed overcapacities and severely damaging market-economy industries like the solar industry.¡±

SolarWorld¡¯s interest in stopping China from dumping heavily subsidized solar panels goes back to 2011 when, in response to overly optimistic projections on the size of the world solar market, Chinese manufacturers overproduced enormous quantities of panels that needed to go somewhere.

China chose to dump them on the U.S. market, wreaking havoc with domestic panel manufacturers¡¯ margins and putting several companies out of business. SolarWorld, which manufacturers its panels at a factory in Hillsboro, Ore., decided it would lead a coalition of manufacturers in an effort to stop the carnage wrought by the dumping.

In November 2011, the company filed the first of two anti-dumping complaints against China with the World Trade Organization, which China joined in 2001 in part because of U.S. lobbying on its behalf. The complaint led the United States to impose steep tariffs on Chinese panel manufacturers, who countered by moving many of their factories to other countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea to avoid being subject to the tariffs.

After Chinese manufacturers used that loophole, SolarWorld filed another complaint to close the loophole, which led to more tariffs being imposed. The tariffs were eventually lowered ¨C though not removed ¨C after complex negotiations between the two governments.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Amazon to install up to 41 MW of on-site solar in the U.S. by the end of 2017

The company¡¯s solar installations planned for 15 fulfillment centers this year will be followed by another 35 by 2020

Yesterday Amazon announced a new initiative to install solar PV at its fulfillment centers, with plans to deploy PV systems at 50 centers around the world by 2020. As the first step, the company says that it will install PV on 15 fulfillment centers in the United States by the end of 2017, with a combined capacity of up to 41 MW.

These initial projects will be located at Amazon facilities in California, New Jersey, Maryland, Nevada and Delaware, and Amazon says that solar installations will generate up to 80% of each fulfillment center¡¯s annual electricity needs.

The company cites the PV installation at its Patterson, California, fulfillment center which it says will cover more than 75% of the 1.1 million square foot roof.

Amazon is not only putting solar installations on its facilities, but in 2016 was the top corporation for solar and wind procurement by capacity, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. BNEF reports that Amazon signed contracts for 233 MW of solar and 417 MW of wind projects globally during the year, and the company recently set a goal to reach 50% renewable energy consumption by the end of 2017.

Amazon has also expanded its Career Choice program to include funding for associates to train in solar installation by gaining NABCEP certification.

¡°The NABCEP professional accreditation is a spring board for fulfillment center associates to enter a rapidly growing and in-demand workforce outside of Amazon as PV installers,¡± said Amazon Worldwide Sustainability Director Kara Hurst. ¡°It would be great one day soon to see former associates developing solar systems on the rooftops of our fulfillment centers.¡±

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Tempress bags order for 200 MW n-type cell production line from China

The Netherlands-based equipment manufacturer will provide an unidentified solar cell maker in China with a 200 MW production line. The supply agreement includes the possible expansion of the line to 1 GW. The equipment will produce n-type crystalline-silicon cells for bifacial modules.

The Dutch manufacturer of diffusion furnaces Tempress System, a unit of U.S.-based Amtech Group, has received an order for a 200 MW solar cell production line from an undisclosed Chinese manufacturer. According to a press release issued by the Dutch research institute ECN (Energy research Centre of the Netherlands), which is partner of Tempress, the line will be used to produce n-type crystalline solar cells for bifacial modules.

ECN said that the line could be further expanded to 1 GW at a later stage. The equipment will be delivered to the Chinese customer in the next few months.

ECN added that the order is worth millions of euros, without providing a more specific figure.

Tempress and ENC signed an R&D partnership agreement in March 2016. At the time, the two entities said they aimed at improving the phosphorus diffusion process for large silicon solar cells and developing a new solar cell process suitable for n-type silicon.

ECN and Tempress Systems are implementing an ECN technology to reduce electrical losses that arise from the recombination of the light-generated electrons in the solar cell. According to ECN, this technology consists of applying a polysilicon layer between the silicon wafer and the metal contacts that are the main source of these losses. The research institute claims that this layer ensures that electricity is good conducted and, at the same time, losses are lowered.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Extension of EU duties on Chinese solar products is now official

On Friday, the EU published in its Official Journal the 18-month extension of antidumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese solar products, including notification of a partial interim review of the measures. The review could lead to the gradual reduction of duties and minimum import prices. The EU will also consider if the Minimum Price Undertaking agreement is still of relevance.

The EU Commission has confirmed it will extend antidumping (AD) and anti-subsidy measures against Chinese solar manufacturers. Results and conclusions of its investigation on the matter were published in the EU Official Journal today. On Wednesday, a spokesperson of the EC had confirmed to pv magazine that the duties would be extended and that the interim review will investigate the gradual mitigation of the antidumping and anti-subsidy measures over the next 18 months.

In its investigation, the EU came to the conclusion that ¡°there is a strong likelihood that the repeal of the anti-dumping measures would lead to the continuation of dumping resulting in the continuation of injury of the Union industry¡±.

As for the investigation period, Brussels has set AD margins of 23.5% to 31.4%. The EC said that the extension of the duties was mainly due to the high production overcapacities at Chinese PV manufacturers.

According to the European Commission (EC), the aggregate capacity of all Chinese module producers increased from 96.3 GW in 2015 to 108 GW last year. Taking into account that in 2016 approximately 75 GW of new PV power was installed worldwide, the EC has concluded that Chinese solar manufacturers have sought to dispose of this excess production. For this reason, as well as for its size and prices, the EU market is particularly attractive for Chinese companies. All of these factors, the EC stated, were crucial for the extension of the AD measures for a further 18 months, otherwise there would be the danger of increased dumping from Chinese module makers.

The EC has set specific AD duties for some large Chinese PV producers. For example, 44.7% will be applied to Trina Solar modules, while JA Solar, Jinko Solar and Yingli were assigned a duty of 51.5%, 41.2% and 35.5%, respectively. Overall, duties range from 27.3% and 64.9% for Chinese module providers. The majority of Chinese module makers was assigned 53.4%.

As for the anti-subsidy duties, there were also specific duties for the largest companies. These range between 3.5% (Yingli) and 11.5% (LDK Solar) and are valid for all Chinese producers involved in the investigation.
The duties will be applied to those companies that were excluded or withdrew from the undertaking imposing a Minimum Import Price (MIP), which since the beginning of this year is of €0.46 per W for modules and of €0.23 per W for cells. The duties must be paid only for modules and cells manufactured in China or for modules assembled with cells produced in China.

Furthermore, the EU has published inits Official Journal the notice of initiation of a partial interim review of the AD and anti-subsidy measures. This review is intended to monitor the level of the duties and the minimum import prices. The Commission specified that the mechanism for the minimum import price (MIP) will be reviewed and changed.

On the one hand, several Chinese manufacturers have already withdrawn from the MIP undertaking or were excluded for violations. As a result, the EU intends to examine if the measures are still applicable.

¡°The experience on the implementation of the undertaking with a MIP, that was set under economic circumstances which have evolved in the past three years, points to the need to reconsider the form of the measures,¡± stated the EC in its document. ¡°Therefore,¡± added the EC, ¡°it appears appropriate to examine whether the form of the measures remains the most appropriate. The prima facie evidence suggests that both the anti-dumping and countervailing measures may reflect the changed circumstances more appropriately by taking the form of a variable duty, based on a MIP for all imports of the product under review. This means that all imports with a declared value at or above the MIP would no longer be subject to duties. Such variable MIP would be regularly adjusted to reflect further technological development and efficiency gains in the solar sector.¡±

The EU said the investigation period will span between 2014 and 2016. The result of the interim review will be published within six to nine months.

Whether the AD and anti-subsidy duties will be reduced to zero over the 18-month extension period or reduced only marginally will likely be the next battlefront for the parties involved in the trade dispute, namely the Solar Alliance for Europe (SAFE) and EU ProSun. While this will be determined by the partial interim investigation, there will likely be pressures exerted on the EC by both sides.

Meanwhile, China¡¯s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) has reacted to the extension of the duties with an official press release. The Ministry said it had expected the termination of the duties. Wang Hejun, the head of the MOC trade remedy and investigation bureau, added he hopes that the interim review will lead to the cancellation of the duties ahead of schedule.

EU ProSun first launched an antidumping complaint with the EC in July 2012. Provisional duties were first applied in May 2013.

Translated by Emiliano Bellini. Edited and additional reporting by Jonathan Gifford.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ï Solar panels for world¡¯s first combined hydro & floating PV project installed in Portugal

French floating PV specialists Ciel & Terre have installed a 220 kW PV installation at a hydroelectric dam on Portugal¡¯s Rabag?o River. Though a comparatively small installation, this represents the first time the two technologies have been used in tandem at utility scale.

The project came about as the result of a pilot tender to add PV generation to the hydroelectric dam in Northern Portugal, in which Ciel & Terre was chosen as EPC provider. The solar panels are installed on a floating island, and will allow the plant to save hydropower to compete at peak demand times.

Ciel & Terre is a market leader in floating PV, having delivered its Hydrelio solution to more than 60 installations in 16 countries. The company is now targeting dam reservoirs as preferred sites for its installations, estimating that covering just 10% of the world¡¯s largest 50 dams could add 400 GW of solar capacity.

The Alto Rabag?o dam has been in operation has been in operation since the 1960s, with a capacity of 68 MW. Portuguese energy giant EDP (Energias de Portugal) acknowledged the potential for combining solar and hydroelectric generation, which led to the tender announcement.

According to Ciel & Terre, the location was chosen due to its high level of difficulty, due to the water depth of 60 metres and surface level variation of more than 30 metres.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Rick ¡°Oops¡± Perry becomes the new U.S. Secretary of Energy

The man who once famously forgot the U.S. Department of Energy in a 2012 Republican presidential debate is now, astonishingly, the person who was just confirmed to lead it.

How fitting that on the day Texas celebrates the 181st anniversary of its independence from Mexico that a former Texas governor takes the reins at the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Senate voted earlier today to confirm former Texas Gov. Rick Perry by a vote of 62-37 to be the nation¡¯s fourteenth Secretary of Energy, making him the second Texan to hold the position. He follows in the footsteps of Charles Duncan Jr., the second Secretary of Energy who came into office in the midst of the oil crisis in 1979.

Perry, a former Texas governor, twice-failed presidential candidate (2012 and 2016) ¡ª and failed Dancing With The Stars contestant, is perhaps most famous for his ¡°Oops¡± moment during the 2012 Republican presidential debate, when he said he wanted to get rid of three agencies but couldn¡¯t remember the name of the third.

The third agency, as it turned out, was the Department of Energy which, astonishingly, he now heads.

As governor of Texas, Perry¡¯s record on renewable energy is mixed. On the whole, he has supported fossil-fuel development, befitting his role as the leader of a state awash in oil wells and oil money. In the past, he¡¯s expressed skepticism about the issue of Climate Change, though he softened his rhetoric by admitting, finally, that it¡¯s possible human beings are contributing to a speeding up of the warming process. Perhaps that apparent change of heart is why nine Democrats crossed party lines to vote ¡°Aye¡± on the nomination.

He has long defended the Keystone XL pipeline ¨C which President Donald J. Trump recently greenlighted after its development had been stopped under President Obama ¨C and Perry has sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for regulating carbon emissions.

Most troubling, however, is that Perry sits on the board of directors for Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind Dakota Access Pipeline through Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Though protesters recently left the site, it had been a focal point of clashes with the police until the Army Corps of Engineers put a halt on the project. The Corps said it wanted to determine whether the pipeline is a threat to the reservation¡¯s water supply and will disrupt ancient burial sites, as protesters maintain.

Like Keystone, the Dakota Access project recently received the full-throated support of the president.

During his confirmation, Perry insisted he would support states¡¯ efforts to promote renewable energy and pledged to keep the National Renewable Energy Laboratory¡¯s doors open and investigating future renewable-energy breakthroughs. He stopped short of supporting a national renewable portfolio standard.

Any plans the new Secretary has to support solar and other renewable energy sources may quickly be irrelevant. Perry¡¯s confirmation comes amid reports of draconian cuts to the department¡¯s budget, including rolling back funding for nuclear physics and advanced scientific computing research to 2008 levels, eliminate the Office of Electricity, eliminate the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and scrap the Office of Fossil Energy, which focuses on technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Solar reached 1.4% of U.S. electricity in 2016

The latest figures from the U.S. Department of Energy show that all renewables together made up 15.3% of U.S. generation.

While the U.S. solar market continues to grow rapidly, solar generation still represented a tiny share of overall U.S. electricity, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Energy¡¯s Energy Information Administration (EIA)

The latest edition of EIA¡¯s Electric Power Monthly shows that the portion of electricity that the nation gets from solar grew nearly 40% in 2016, from around 1% of total generation to 1.4%. Wind is likewise growing, with the share of electricity from wind rising from 4.7% in 2015 to 5.5% of all generation last year.

And while these are relatively low shares, solar and wind made up more than 60% of new generation put online last year by capacity.

Boosted by the growing share of solar and wind, 2016 serves as the second year where non-hydro renewable sources generated more electricity than hydroelectric plants. This likewise brought the overall share of renewable energy in the nation¡¯s generation to 15.3% during the year.

The share of both solar and all renewables in the United States is well behind that of most nations in Western Europe, and this is largely because solar and wind deployment in concentrated in a few states and regions. Hawaii, California, North Carolina and Arizona and New Jersey boast higher than average portions of solar in their electricity mixes, however despite recent progress many states are still behind, including large energy users like Texas, Florida and Illinois.

Wind development has likewise been highly regional. Last year Texas got 15% of its power from wind, and California and states in the Great Plains including Iowa have been national leaders. However wind development is still limited east of the Mississippi, especially in the U.S. South which has poor land-based wind resources.

This may be changing, and New York in particular has seen a boom in solar deployment in the last few years. Also, it is important to note that generation figures always lag installations. With an estimated 14.6 GW of solar installed in 2016, 2017 would see at least 2% of U.S. electricity generation from solar, even if no projects were put online this year.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö INDEOtec receives PECVD equipment order from Saudi university

The Swiss equipment company will provide its OCTOPUS II PECVD/PVD platform to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

INDEOtec will supply the University with its package for both PECVD and PVD processes, which are vital in the production of high efficiency thin film cell concepts, including heterojunction.

¡°At KAUST we have been looking for a deposition system offering high flexibility, proven reliability and very low maintenance requirements,¡± says Stefaan De Wolf, Associate Professor at the university, ¡°all of which we can find in INDEOtec¡¯s OCTOPUS II platform.¡±

INDEOtec¡¯s platform can deposit a range of materials onto a crystalline silicon cell, and significantly reduces substrate handling and avoids vacuum breakage between to and bottom side deposition cycles, according to the company.

¡°This order underlines the strong confidence in the platform concept for a broad range of investigations at high performance PV cell architectures,¡± state Indeotec in a press release, ¡°as well as the ever increasing institutional recognition of Indeotec¡¯s technologies for thin-film coating solutions.

INDEOtec, based in Neuchatel, just outside the Swiss capital of Bern, has supplied its OCTOPUS II platform to several other research institutes in the past, including the French Institute for Photvoltaics IPVF, and an unnamed laboratory in the U.S.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö North American and European utilities invested around $297 million in distributed solar to date, GTM Research

Investments in distributed solar made by North American and European utilities have reached an aggregate value of $297 million to date. North American power providers seem to be more confident on distributed solar, but European companies are investing more heavily in all distributed energy segments.

North American and European utilities invested about $2.9 billion in 130 individual distributed energy companies since 2010, according to the report ¡°Utility Investments in Distributed Energy¡± released by US market research company GTM Research.

Investments in distributed solar, which were more conspicuous in North America, came in at about $297 million to date, a volume that represents 18% of total investments.

Investments in energy storage reached $328 million, while the utility RED integration segment totaled $264 million. Direct consumer energy management accounts for the largest share with around $989 million in investments.

Although five of the seven most active utilities are located in Europe, U.S. companies are investing more heavily in distributed solar, the report notes. In fact, 22% of investments in distributed energy in North American were devoted to solar, while this percentage reached 14% in Europe. Investments in solar picked in 2013.

European utilities, however, seem to be more keen about investing in distributed energy with a volume of about $1.78 million, although the investments of North American power providers, which reached an amount of $1.1 million, were also not negligible. Of the $2.9 billion invested worldwide to date, $1 billion came from transactions which were closed in 2016 alone.

GTM Research stressed that the reason why European utilities are more active in this sector depends on the fact that their business models have been threatened by renewable and distributed energy earlier, compared to those based in North America or elsewhere.

Overall, 37 distributed energy companies were acquired by utilities worldwide to date. The company with the largest number of acquisitions of this kind is France-based Engie with a portfolio of 15 companies, followed by German power provider Eon (14), US-based Exelon (13) and Germany¡¯s RWE (12).

Engie invested $491 million in this segment so far, while Eon, Exelon and RWE made investments in the amount of $344 million, $257 million, and $206 million, respectively. According to GTM Research, however, the volume of these investments could be higher ¡°because investment amounts and acquisition prices are sometimes kept private.¡±

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö PV Expo: Ready, ZEH-dy, go for Japan¡¯s residential solar market

The Zero Energy Home shaped discussions at the PV Expo in Tokyo, as Japan lays out its plans to alter its energy landscape, and solar ¨C as ever ¨C finds a way to fit right in.

The packed show floors of days two and three of the PV Expo in Tokyo were in stark contrast to the relatively subdued opening day, and perhaps a reflection of Japan¡¯s reticence to rushing in.

Zero Energy Homes (ZEH) were ¡®a thing¡¯ at last year¡¯s show: a government-approved way of building new homes that places emphasis on a lower carbon footprint, namely by becoming 20% more energy-efficient. The vagaries that shroud the hows and whens of ZEH remain, but there could be no denying the impact that this government-backed ¡®plan¡¯ is having.

Talk of ZEH opportunities was more prominent this year, particularly after the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Investment (METI) confirmed on the opening day that the FIT for residential-sized solar installations will fall from JPY 31-33/kWh ($.029/kWh) to JPY 21/kWh ($0.18/kWh). This cut had been widely anticipated, as evidenced by the sheer number of solar module and home energy management system (HEMS) solutions on display across the show floor.

Wuxi Suntech exhibited its ZEH solution bundle that comprises a hybrid lithium battery inverter (3-4kWh), control management system and either rooftop-mounted or BIPV modules. Suntech Japan president Zhan Gao told pv magazine that he expects this product to be introduced to the Japanese home market later this year.

¡°Because Suntech acquired Japanese BIPV specialist MSK Corporation in 2006, we are uniquely positioned to understand the needs of the typical Japanese homeowner, and can combine local knowledge and sales channels with Suntech¡¯s renowned brand and quality,¡± Gao said.

IHS senior solar research manager Cormac Gilligan had earlier told pv magazine that while the ZEH program will be a boon for Japan¡¯s residential market, foreign module suppliers especially could find it difficult to sell to the handful of leading homebuilders in Japan, given the strong market preference for domestic brands.

GCL-Si president, overseas business unit, James Hu, understood these concerns, but spoke of his confidence that the Chinese company¡¯s new G-Home system ¨C comprising GCL solar modules and battery ¨C is ideally suited for the demands of this growing section of the Japanese solar industry. Hu expects residential solar installations in Japan to rise to around 2 GW this year.

Germany¡¯s SMA ¨C a strong presence in both Japan¡¯s megasolar and decentralized PV markets ¨C is also increasing its activity in the Japanese residential PV sector. SMA Japan MD Takeshi Imazu told pv magazine that he expects C&I and residential PV to account for 70% of Japan¡¯s market growth in the next few years, and revealed that SMA and Tigo are poised to roll-out their module-level power electronics (MLPE) solution in Japan very soon.

Canadian Solar president and CEO Shawn Qu also spoke in hopeful terms where residential growth is concerned, while Jolywood SVP for the high-efficiency cell division Liu Yong spoke of why the Chinese firm¡¯s new n-type bifacial modules of 21% efficiency are finding a receptive audience in a Japanese market that continues to place keen emphasis on high-efficiency solar products.

Elsewhere, Trina Solar, JinkoSolar and Hanwha Q Cells were also promoting their high-efficiency options for the residential market, while inverter leaders Sungrow, Huawei and SolarEdge placed a keen emphasis on the equally-exciting commercial and industrial (C&I) rooftop space, which is also expected to benefit from METI¡¯s Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB) initiative, which targets an expectation of half of all new commercial buildings built by 2020 to be zero-net energy.

£¨Mar 3,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö EU Commission confirms 18-month extension of solar trade duties

The European Commission has confirmed that it will extend its anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on cells and modules imported from China by 18 months, a reduction from the 24 months first proposed, according to a SolarPower Europe release.

The Commission has also agreed to a gradual phase out of the measures.

EU member states had already passed the18-month extension of the punitive trade duties in February, having rejected the originally proposed 24-month extension in January.

James Watson, chief executive of SolarPower Europe, said: ¡°As expected following the pressure exerted on the Commission by the member states, it has decided to prolong the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures for 18 months. We consider this an improvement.¡±

Last month, SolarWorld vice president Milan Nitzschke welcomed a revamp of the MIP but was disappointed not to see an extension beyond even the two years initially proposed.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö PV CellTech Talk: Dr. Omid Shojaei, CEO, INDEOtec SA

Swiss-based PV manufacturing equipment specialist INDEOtec SA has been carving out a key role in the emerging PECVD-PVD deposition market for next-generation heterojunction (HJ) solar cells. INDEOtec had been a key sponsor of the inaugural PV CellTech conference in 2016 and once again has chosen the event to be a major showcase for its technology and expertise.

The company has supplied multiple ¡®OCTOPUS¡¯ PECVD-PVD cluster systems to various renowned solar R&D facilities around the world that are supporting advanced research into HJ technology. The ¡®OCTOPUS¡¯s PECVD¡¯ is used to deposit intrinsic and doped amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) materials as well as for passivation processes using Si alloys such as SiNx, SiOx, and OCTOPUS¡¯s PVD is used to deposit TCOs and metallic thin layers such as ITO, AZO, ZnO, Ag and Al.

In January 2017, INDEOtec was awarded an important grant from the SWISS Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) to further develop its OCTOPUS II platform in partnership with Swiss research partner, CSEM.

A key part of the funding was to support further validation of its OCTOPUS II cluster system for double-sided HJ deposition requirements, enabled by its unique ¡®PECVD-Mirror Reactor¡¯ design that offers lower processing costs and higher conversion efficiencies for heterojunction solar cells, The Mirror Reactor concept enables the top and bottom side thin film substrate deposition without the need of substrate flipping and vacuum breakage that can cause cell performance loss and manufacturing complexity. Another key element of the funding is the validation of ACCT or Anti-Cross-Contamination Treatment, a special knowledge developed by Indeotec to radically solve the issue of intrinsic a-Si contamination by n- & p- dopants from either contaminated reactor walls or contaminated carrier plates. ACCTenables stack layers deposition of intrinsic and doped a-Si with the same carrier plate and therefore, in the same PECVD reactor and simplifying even further handling steps inside the PECVD machine.

Dr. Omid Shojaei, CEO of INDEOtec SA gave PV Tech a sneak insight into its next-generation OCTOPUS III platform that is currently in development that can take R&D and pilot production HJ cells into volume production. Dr. Shojaei has also been a member of the PV CellTech advisory board and presenting at this years PV CellTech event.

¡°We regard the OCTOPUS II cluster system the bridge between R&D and pilot line production, which is capable of 6MW of heterojunction (HJ) solar cells,¡± noted Dr. Shojei. ¡°However, we are readying the jump to a mass production platform, named OCTOPUS III ¨C PECVD with an initial throughput of 2,400WPH capability. This comes from larger reactor sizes but retaining all the benefits of Mirror Reactor design and ACCT including the elimination of cross contamination of conventional PECVD tools on the market.¡±

¡°With OCTOPUS II we could handle four wafers on the plate but with OCTOPUS III will initially be able to process 48 wafers at the same time.¡±

The need to develop a mass production platform is evident by the recent momentum in next-generation HJ cell technology and commercialisation.

¡°We clearly see but without disclosing the names that there are more and more opportunities that are coming from China as well as other regions. But what we also feel is that cell producers want to buy proven technology that has shown at least 23% average cell efficiency in a pilot scale. This puts the risks back on the equipment supplier and we need to bring breakthrough technologies at an acceptable level of price to satisfy their requirements."

There are many improvements in term of cell structures and efficiency potential, however, challenges with HJ technology also exist in areas outside the control of the equipment suppliers according to Dr. Shojaei.

¡°A key challenge we see is in the supply and intrinsic quality of the wafer, unlike that required for say PERC based solar cells. With the deposition of multiple layers at only 8 to 10 nanometres thick with heterojunction cells the quality of the wafer is extremely important. Heterojunction cells require the best wafer uniformity on the features.¡±

¡°The second challenge is clearly on the PECVD side with complexity of automation and process cross contamination, due to wafer handling within the system. By avoiding touching the wafer this would help in this issue.¡±

However, Dr. Shojaei also noted that key challenges also exist at the module assembly end, in particular the tabbing and stringing, due to process temperatures often in the 400C degree level when HJ cells can only cope with temperatures around 200C levels. There are various alternative solutions that are proposed today, but we feel there should more effort of validation and price reduction.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Japan¡¯s big PV names targeting self-consumption and rooftop market

The Japanese PV market¡¯s switch from a feed-in tariff (FiT) driven, mostly utility-scale phenomenon to one based on rooftops and self-consumption was in evidence at the PV Expo trade show in Tokyo this week.

PV Tech visited the booths of major manufacturers and international household names Panasonic, Toshiba and Sharp during the exhibition. It was clear that while utility-scale PV (known as ¡®mega solar¡¯) in Japan is set to diminish in market size, with the government now confirming the introduction of annual 500MW tenders, each of the three big names was preparing to see the already strong residential market take off further and commercial PV continue to grow. The Japanese government has confirmed that FiT prices will fall to £¤21 (US$0.18)/kW this year with further drops expected next year, meaning that from then it will be as economical to self-consume onsite generated power as to sell it back to power companies.

Panasonic¡¯s booth included its latest high-efficiency ¡®HIT¡¯ branded modules for the residential market boasting conversion efficiencies as high as 19.3%. They are also branded ¡®P&S¡¯, or ¡®push and slide¡¯, which means the modules can be easily snapped into place on rooftop installations. Streamlining labour costs and installation times have been a key area where improvements have been cited as needed in Japan¡¯s market.

While residential rooftop PV is still being installed on a feed-in tariff basis for the most part in Japan, Panasonic was marketing inverter solutions for households that are ¡®battery-ready¡¯, so that when economics dictate, system owners will be able to simply add lithium-ion batteries to their existing PV systems. Panasonic as well as Sharp was also selling so-called ¡®hybrid¡¯ inverters, which incorporate solar PV inverters and battery inverters into one package.

Also of interest on the Panasonic stand was a new set of square modules for the commercial market, specifically designed to be placed in narrow spaces on flat roofs at high altitude, including the many skyscrapers that dominate the skylines of Tokyo and other major Japanese cities. The modules are capable of withstanding strong winds and are considered suitable even for buildings more than 200 metres tall.

Zero Energy Houses and Zero Energy Buildings

Japan has introduced new Zero Energy House (ZEH) and Zero Energy Building (ZEB) standards. While last year industry sources at the show had expressed a belief that ZEH would be mandatory for all new houses built by 2020, it appears the government has scaled back its ambitions on receiving feedback from housebuilders. Instead there is a target that by that year 50% of new dwellings and new commercial buildings will be net zero energy, which still represents a sizeable opportunity in a country which builds close to one million new houses a year.

In addition to the big three profiled, many companies were presenting kits and solutions for ZEH, incorporating heating and insulation, PV and energy storage. Perhaps the most sophisticated looking was Sharp¡¯s (pictured). Companies like Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba, which are involved in a number of different business areas related to electronics already have many of the necessary technologies within their production and marketing capabilities and the focus on ZEH and ZEB seemed a natural fit.

Sharp business strategy manager Hideo Miki said that from his company¡¯s point of view it was important to make ZEH kits that were not just capable of generating more power than they consumed in nominal terms, but also by using batteries making practical good use of that generated power.

Miki said that while there are some incentives available from the government for ZEH, the support scheme seems somewhat complex and requires homeowners to present evidence of the house being net zero energy before funds can be received. Sharp has also launched its own range of batteries for houses in several configurations with up to 6.5kWh of storage available in the basic models.

Toshiba¡¯s latest ranges of products for the rooftop market included a prototype solar roofing tile, which while more conspicuous than Tesla-SolarCity¡¯s much-hyped solar shingles, still appeared to fit neatly into rows of normal roofing tiles. Unfortunately as the tiles were not yet available to buy, Toshiba representatives also demanded that PV Tech refrain from photographing them, so we cannot show them to you.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Kentucky senator stalls own anti-net metering bill after backlash

SB 214 that would allow Kentucky¡¯s public utilities to choose their own individual rates for residential solar has been stalled by bill sponsor senator Jared Carpenter after backlash.

Carpenter said earlier this week that he was ¡°shocked¡± by the strong reaction from the solar industry who said that the bill would put an abrupt end to Kentucky¡¯s emerging residential market. The Republican senator told local press that his intentions were not to put local installers out of business, and planned to modify the bill based on their concerns.

The bill was set to be reviewed yesterday by the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, but Carpenter, who also chairs the committee, told the group he had been unable to construct a fair compromise in response to the backlash.

"With the limited amount of time we have, it's going to be hard for it to go anywhere, but I'm still going to continue to work on the issue and it may be something we can address during the interim," he said. "I can't say it's dead, but the time is running out."

Carpenter admitted that passing over the bill does lessen its chances of being approved in the next legislative session.

This could be a glimmer of hope for solar advocates; as the bill would have resulted in different net metering rates and changes based on mere geographic discrepancies. This would also have given rise to charges every couple of years as utilities were encouraged by the Public Service Commission to ¡°recover all costs necessary¡± from solar customers.

The bill is not a complete write-off as of yet, with solar advocates and opponents of the measure commending Carpenter¡¯s decision to take the time necessary to reach a decision.

¡°I don't want to do anything that messes up or changes the ability for installers - entrepreneurs that have a business plan...But I'm just not for sure that that business plan needs to be subsidized through the average ratepayer,¡± he said.

Carpenter has also said he does not want to make solar unaffordable to anyone, and intends to increase the capacity limit to 1,000 kilowatts on a single meter ¨C up from the current 30 kilowatts.

"The heart of our concern was that they were introducing a lot of regulations," said Matt Partymiller, chairman of the Kentucky Solar Industries Association. "The result would have been regulating the solar industry out of work."

It seems that both interests at stake believe in solar, but are fighting for a way to value this fairly. The decision is also a testament to the lobbying efforts of the solar industry.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Arizona Public Service and solar industry reach long-anticipated rate case settlement

After years of back and forth, Arizona¡¯s largest utility Arizona Public Service (APS) and solar industry representatives reached a deal on rate design.

The parties have filed a final rate design settlement with the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) that allows for smaller cuts to what it pays rooftop solar customers than originally proposed, despite new rooftop solar systems being compensated at a lower rate.

Under the settlement, the controversial mandatory demand charge rate for residential customers was dropped, replacing it with the option for new customers to use either a demand-based rate or a time-of-use (ToU) rate, until 1 May 2018 ¨C after which all new customers will be transferred to a time-varying rate.

Critically, net metering will remain for existing rooftop solar customers, with a 20-year grandfathering period for those who filed an interconnection application before an official decision is reached.

Also under the terms, rooftop solar customers will be paid US$12.9 cents/kWh for energy sold back to the grid. Previously, these users had received the full retail rate which would have been around 13-14 cents. This new rate will however decline 10% annually.

Whilst there is a rate increase of 4.5%, this was settled at a lower increase than the 8% initially proposed ¨C representing US$6 a month more on an average monthly bill rather than the US$11 a month increase that APS proposed in June. The new export rate was approved under APS¡¯ ¡®Resource Comparison Proxy¡¯ methodology that will also call for a grid access fee for solar customers, if the settlement is approved by the ACC.

Reception

Evidently, the settlement was not a boon to Arizona solar customers, given that incentives for solar have declined, but the net metering and grandfathering provisions are ideal considering what has happened in other states such as Nevada and Hawaii.

¡°After weeks of discussion, we are pleased negotiations produced a settlement that all stakeholders, SEIA included, feel comfortable signing. The thorough process concluded outside of litigation, and we hope an era of collaboration will take hold in Arizona,¡± said Sean Gallagher, vice president of state affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

¡°While the solar industry didn¡¯t get everything it had hoped for out of the settlement, Arizona¡¯s current solar customers can rest assured they will be grandfathered into their existing rates, which was a priority for SEIA. Under the agreement, new solar customers will be able to sign up under initial rates that are as favourable as could be obtained under the Commission¡¯s December 2016 Value of Solar decision, which creates longer term uncertainties for Arizona customers.¡±

Sunrun for its part said the deal fails to recognise the full potential of rooftop solar, and should not serve as a model for other states.

¡°While Arizona does not serve as a model to encourage innovation in distributed energy, we are pleased that, together, we have ended years of debate on the future of rooftop solar policy in Arizona,¡± said Anne Hoskins, chief policy officer, in a statement.

¡°Sunrun will stand by the terms of the settlement agreement and plans to provide Arizonans with access to rooftop solar, even though the settlement does not fully recognize the multitude of benefits that rooftop solar brings to all Arizonans,¡± she said.

"The future of Arizona¡¯s solar industry was very much on the line in this case and while this settlement doesn¡¯t help Arizona solar grow, it allows solar to remain a viable option for some Arizonans,¡± Brandon Cheshire, president of the Board of the Arizona chapter of the SEIA, said in a statement.

The new rates reflect the movement by utilities who argue that the burden on non-solar users is broadened as more consumers go solar, as the price of equipment falls, the incentive should too.

Regardless, this settlement is better than more years of contentious debate, and should allow APS to steer clear of another rate case for the next three years. The settlement remains to be approved by the five ACC commissioners.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö World Bank approves US$480 million guarantee for Argentina¡¯s RenovAr programme

The World Bank has approved a 20-year US$480 million guarantee for Argentina¡¯s flagship renewable energy plan, known as the RenovAr programme.

Under RenovAr, Argentina has already seen two highly successful renewable energy auctions in which the government was shocked by the high levels of interest in solar PV ¨C enough to make it expand the capacity available for solar from 300MW to 400MW in the first round.

The World Bank will now support the Fund for the Development of Renewable Energies (FODER), which was created to facilitate the financing of projects under the RenovAr Programme. Related technologies include wind, solar, biomass, biogas and small hydroelectric.

Of the 59 projects awarded between Rounds 1 and 1.5 of the RenovAr Programme, 27 requested the World Bank guarantee, including 10 solar PV (306MW), 12 wind projects (721MW), four small hydroelectric projects (4MW) and one biogas (1MW).

Juan Jos¨¦ Aranguren, Argentina¡¯s minister of energy and mining, said: "The support of the World Bank has allowed our country to advance renewable energies in a matter of months what was not done for a decade - contributing to our goal of guaranteeing energy security and reducing the impact on climate change."

Jesko Hentschel, director of the World Bank for Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, said: "This project encourages private investment in renewable energies that help meet the growing demand for energy in the country with a clean source that enhances sustainable development.¡±

Argentina¡¯s long-term target is to achieve 20% renewables in the energy mix by 31 December 2025.

The board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) also approved a loan of US$130 million for projects awarded in Argentina¡¯s RenovAr renewable energy programme last year. Meanwhile, President Mauricio Macri began this year by declaring 2017 as a ¡°Year of Renewable Energy¡±.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö India¡¯s SECI scraps 150MW local content solar tender in Rajasthan

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has scrapped 150MW of solar capacity that was due to be auctioned under local content rules.

The original tender involved 750MW under open category at the Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan, but SECI carved out another 150MW for the Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) back in January. The DCR mandates solar equipment to be sourced from India. However, SECI announced today that it has decided to revert back to the original conditions by taking out the DCR element.

Thus, 500MW open category will now be auctioned for Phase III, while 250MW open category will later be auctioned for Phase IV.

Jasmeet Khurana, associate director, consulting at consultancy firm Bridge to India, told PV Tech it is likely that since the tendering process would have spilled into the next financial year, the DCR component may have had to be removed due to the implementation of last year's World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling.

Last September, the WTO ruled in favour of the US in its trade dispute with India over the DCR policy. The US claimed that the DCR breached international trade rules by favouring India¡¯s local manufacturers. As a result of the battle, India will have to phase out its DCR tenders. The Indian government has continued to auction DCR capacity in recent months during the interim period before the ruling is enforced, but this may be the first sign of the WTO constraints taking hold.

In what was a deemed a tit-for-tat reaction, India has filed its own dispute with the US over alleged domestic content requirements and subsidies for the renewable energy sector in eight US states.

Without the DCR, India's solar manufacturers continue to struggle against the extreme low module prices coming out of China and other policy uncertainty.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Grenergy connects 20.6MW of PV in Chile under the Stabilised Price Regime

Grenergy has connected solar PV plants with a combined capacity of 20.6MW to the grid in the O¡¯Higgins Region of southern Chile.

Grenergy closed on US$19.2 million of financing last September from two entities, Security and Consorcio. The company claims that the plants are the southernmost utility-scale solar projects in the world.

They are also the first in Chile where a local authority has supported a renewable energy project under the Stabilised Price Regime. This regime accounts for projects below 9MW in size, known as PMGDs. The stabilised price regime, which is an alternative to the highly volatile spot market, helps projects secure financing as it is seen as less unstable and more predictable.

Grenergy has roughly 200MW of solar projects completed or under development in Chile. It has also recently been awarded a 30MW solar project in Mexico and a 36MW wind project in Peru.

Grenergy chief executive, David Ruiz de Andr¨¦s, said: ¡°We hope that 2017 will be the year of Grenergy¡¯s consolidation in Latin America. The year-end goal is to become the company with the highest number of photovoltaic plants in operation in Chile. This will also bolster our business model, producing a mix between recurring revenue ¨C generated by the sale of power from plants in operation ¨C and the sale of plants to third parties¡±.

London-based firm Actis this week acquired 1.5GW of bankrupt SunEdison¡¯s Latin American PV assets while also forming a new platform for the region.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö meeco installs largest PV plant in Zimbabwe

Swiss-based renewable energy company The meeco Group have installed the largest solar plant in Zimbabwe.

The project boasts a generation capacity of 216kW and marks a major turning point for a country strongly dependant on fossil fuels. The mecco Group recently equipped the facility of a Zimbabwean company with its solar power solution, sun2live.

The new PV project is featured in two areas. The first site holds a 152 kWp sun2live solution and will be installed close to a lake ¡ª from where the facility gathers water for its production. The solar project will produce energy used to power the pumps that process the water.

The second 64kW system will be mounted at the company¡¯s facility and will cut down on diesel consumption. The installation will lead to a yearly reduction of approximately 134,000 litres of diesel and cut down on 280 tonnes of CO2 annually.

Sebastian Bovensiepen, The mecco Group¡¯s chief operating officer, said: ¡°Ensuring a reliable energy supply is often a big challenge African farms and companies have to cope with. Load shedding, power cuts or remote off-grid areas lead these companies to search for alternative energy sources. In comparison to expensive, polluting and high-maintenance diesel generators, PV energy systems such as the sun2live offer an eco-friendly solution, which additionally ensures lower costs for generating electricity.¡±

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Grupo Clavijo, MFV Solar announce merger, form new solar tracking company

Spanish-based solar tracking companies Grupo Clavijo and MFV Solar, along with the support of the Q-Growth Fund, have announced a merger agreement to form NCLAVE, a new PV tracker company.

NCLAVE is boosted by two companies with more than 10 years of experience in the solar market, during which they installed 2GW in 40 countries. Going forward, NCLAVE is scheduled to install 600MW over the coming months.

NCLAVE already has the resources of a global company, featuring offices in five different continents. Grupo Clavijo has offices in Chile, the US, Brazil and Australia, while MFV has developed installations in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Borja Oyarzabal, a partner at Q-Growth, said: "Photovoltaic solar energy has reached the point where it can compete with conventional energy sources. This means that there will be strong global growth in the sector in the coming years. Our goal is to help create a global leader that is able to harness the growth opportunities existing in the sector."

Miguel Clavijo, CEO of Grupo Clavijo, added: "The merger with MFV Solar is a strategic step that strengthens our companies` international standing in the structures and solar trackers sector. Furthermore, with the support of Q-Growth, we are taking a major step towards making the most advanced solar tracking technology available to developers, EPC contractors and installers worldwide.¡±

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Actis commits US$525 million for new Latin American platform, acquires 1.5GW of SunEdison assets

Growth market investor company Actis has acquired over 1.5GW of solar PV assets from bankrupt SunEdison in Latin America as part of a US$525 million commitment to launch a new Pan-Latin American renewable energy platform ¡ª Atlas Renewable Energy.

The deal includes an agreement to acquire 578MW of contracted projects in operation, construction or advanced development stage, as well as over 1GW of projects in early stage development.

Once these projects are completed, the installations are expected to produce enough clean energy to power over 350,000 households, cutting CO2 emissions by over 1.5 million tons.

Core target markets for Atlas Renewable Energy will include Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay and Chile. Atlas stands as Actis' fifth power generation platform in Latin America, joining fellow investments in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Central America. The company will be headquartered in Santiago, Chile, and will also feature regional offices in Brazil and Mexico.

Michael Harrington, energy business partner at Actis, said: "The creation of the Atlas Platform represents Actis' commitment to Latin America, recognizing its continued robust potential for renewable energy growth. This business plan will be led by a strong, tested management team with proven track record in the solar industry. We are delighted to back this management team to build and grow Atlas, and feel strongly that this transaction sets off the platform to a great start."

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Chint signs framework agreement to build solar factory in Brazil

The Chinese module maker has signed an agreement to set up a solar module manufacturing facility in Brazil. The local government hopes the new factory will attract more investments.

The Chinese solar module manufacturer Chint has signed a framework agreement with the government of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte to build a PV panel factory in the region.

The agreement was signed by Chint president Zhu Xinmin and the State Governor Robinson Faria on the occasion of an official visit of Faria to Shanghai, as explains the regional government in a press release.

¡°This strategic and technological cooperation agreement with Chint will create new jobs and income in our region and will attract new investments,¡± said Faria, who toured Chint¡¯s facilities during his visit to Shanghai.

With the new factory in Rio Grande do Norte, stressed the government in its press release, Chint will improve its market position in South America, Central America and Africa.

In Brazil, the financing for solar plants is often granted to projects that meet local content requirements.

Currently the largest module factory in Brazil is a 400 MW manufacturing facility of Chinese-Canadian solar producer Canadian Solar. Production at the factory was started at the end of 2016.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Mixed reactions to 18-month extension of antidumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese manufacturers

The 18-month extension to antidumping (AD) and anti-subsidy duties applied to Chinese solar exports has caused mixed reactions within the industry. The measure should be published on the EU Official Journal by the end of this week.

The 18-month extension to antidumping (AD) and anti-subsidy duties applied to Chinese solar products, revealed yesterday by pv magazine has brought mixed reactions from the industry. The measure is now expected to be published on the EU Official Journal by March 4th at the latest.

SolarWorld-led association EU Prosun welcomed the EU decision: ¡°Antidumping measures will be necessary as long as there is dumping¡±, responded EU Prosun president Milan Nitzschke to pv magazine¡®s request for comment. ¡°The solar sector in Europe, China and elsewhere can be further developed only with fair competition.¡±

EU Prosun filed a petition with the EU authorities to extend the duties on Chinese solar products, which were introduced by Brussels in 2013.

The CEO of the association SolarPower Europe, James Watson, told pv magazine that the measure is a ¡°good compromise¡±, which his association and its members can accept, although the definitive end of the duties is desirable. The association, Watson said, would have preferred a 12-month extension. ¡°As expected, following the pressure exerted on the Commission by the Member States, it has decided to prolong the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures for 18 months. We consider this an improvement as the Commission¡¯s original proposal was a 24 months extension of the duties.¡±

Milan Nitzschke of EUProsun also welcomed the EU¡¯s decision to conduct an interim review on both duties and minimum import prices. ¡°This will make minimum import prices transparent,¡± Nitzschke explained, ¡°and as a result, it would be easier to monitor them. This will be beneficial for all players.¡± Nitschke also welcomed the adjustment of prices based on technology development.

James Watson of SolarPower Europe is also confident that the interim review will bring positive results: ¡°We hope that in the next months a new system to set minimum import prices will be set up and that these prices will be closer to real market prices.¡±

As for the debate of the past weeks, Nitzschke stressed how cheap PV products have become in Europe, and especially in Germany, compared to other non-European countries, which are seeing a strong development in new installations. ¡°For too long,¡± Nitzschke said, ¡°the sector has given the impression that prices of solar modules were excessively high in Europe. This is not the case, as everybody knows. If we stop spreading this idea, European consumers could regain confidence in solar.¡±

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö ReneSola regains NYSE listing compliance

The Chinese integrated PV manufacturer¡¯s stock has traded above the New York Stock Exchange¡¯s (NYSE) minimum threshold of $1.00 per share for 30 straight days.

Its American Depositary Shares (ADS) closed at $2.92 on March 1.

In early November, the NYSE warned ReneSola that it was in danger of being de-listed, as its ADS had fallen below the minimum average closing price of $1.00 per share.

It was given six months to regain NYSE listing compliance.

The company ¡ª based in Jiashan, in China¡¯s Zhejiang province ¡ª regained NYSE compliance by changing the number of its shares represented by each ADS from two shares to 10, according to an online statement.

That ratio change went into effect on February 10, from which point the company¡¯s ADS remained above the average closing price threshold of $1.00.

In February, the market regulator told Chinese PV module supplier Yingli ¡ª a key competitor of ReneSola ¡ª that it had 90 days to regain compliance with the NYSE¡¯s minimum requirement that its average market capitalization remained above $50 million for more than 30 straight trading days.

In early January, ReneSola revealed plans to provide EPC services for 335 MW of rooftop PV capacity that Beijing Enterprises Clean Energy (BECE) is financing the development of in the Chinese provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Fujian, Shanxi and Jiangsu. The projects will be completed by the end of June.

In February, it announced plans to provide PV modules and EPC services for 32 MW of commercial and industrial rooftop projects under development in China¡¯s Shandong, Anhui and Zhejiang provinces.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö World Bank approves $480 million guarantee to promote solar and renewables in Argentina

The World Bank will promote the development of large-scale renewable energy and solar projects across Argentina with a $ 480 million guarantee. The funds will be used to support projects being implemented under the country¡¯s RenovAr program for renewable energies.

The World Bank announced that it will provide a US$ 480 million guarantee to support the construction of large-scale renewable energy and solar projects across Argentina.

The 20-year guarantee will be used mostly for the development of wind and solar power projects being implemented under Argentina¡¯s renewable energy program RenovAr and selected through two bidding rounds (Round 1 and Round 1.5), which were held by the Argentinean government in 2016.

The country¡¯s Ministry of Energy and Mining selected 59 projects with a combined capacity of 2,423 MW through these two tenders. The World Bank specified that, of these projects, 27 have requested its guarantee, including 10 PV projects totaling 306 MW. Overall, 916 MW of solar projects were awarded through the two bidding rounds.

Round 2 of the RenovAr program is expected to be launched by May of this year.

Currently, renewables represent 1.8% of the energy mix in Argentina. The country has set an objective of having renewables make up 20% of its energy mix by 2025.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Huadian wraps up 40 MW of solar in China

The Chinese state-owned power producer has connected three projects to the grid in eastern and northern China.

It finished a 10 MW array in Shandong province, a 10 MW project in Zhejiang province and a 20 MW installation in Hebei province, according to a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The group owns 100% stakes in all three projects.

Its cumulative installed PV capacity now stands at 184 MW.

Huadian Power International recorded a net profit of 3.7 billion yuan ($540.3 million) in the first nine months of 2016, down 38.7% year on year.

In late January, it said that it expected to post a profit decline of roughly 47% to 57% in 2016. However, it has yet to release its full-year earnings.

The group, which has a dual listing on the Shanghai stock exchange, operates solar, wind, coal-fired and hydropower plants throughout China.

In 2015, it was one of several companies selected by the National Energy Administration to build the first 950 MW phase of a 3 GW ¡°Top Runner¡± solar demonstration base in Shanxi province.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Meyer Burger to shut-down U.S. diamond wire production

The Swiss equipment provider has announced a plan to close production for its diamond wire platform in Colorado. The company blames global pressure on prices and margins. Meanwhile, its preliminary financial results for 2016 show a 40% increase in sales.

The Swiss equipment provider Meyer Burger has announced it will shut-down its diamond wire production at Diamond Materials Tech Inc. (DMT) in Colorado Springs, U.S.

As a consequence of this decision, the company will lay-off 72 employees working at the factory. Some unspecified ¡°important technology know-how¡± will be moved to the company¡¯s technology center in Thun, Switzerland.

The company stressed that this production will be discontinued ¡°for quite some time¡± and has blamed global pressure on prices and margins for its decision.

Although many measures to restructure the production were taken since 2012, the company said, the unit has not been able to become profitable. Furthermore, Meyer Burger said that its decision to stop this production will not affect its product line of diamond wire based cutting equipment.

Moreover, Meyer Burger stressed that its decision to close the diamond wire production in the U.S. will lower its annualized operating cost base by approximately 10 million CHF ($9.8 million) and will lead to one-time non-cash related depreciation and impairment of inventory, technology and manufacturing equipment in an amount of about CHF 12 million ($11.8 million).

Meyer Burger has also provided preliminary financial results for 2016. The company said its sales grew by 40% to 453 million CHF ($448.2 million) last year, while new orders increased from 418.9 million CHF ($414.4 million) in 2015 to 456 million CHF ($451.2 million) in 2016. Ebidta also improved year-on-year from a loss of 55.9 million CHF ($55.3 million) to a profit 10.5 million CHF ($10.3 million).

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Italy installed 369 MW of new PV systems in 2016

The Italian solar market grew by 22% in 2016. The country added 369 MW of new PV systems last year. This growth was mainly driven by tax breaks for the residential sector and the regulation for self-consumption. Most of these systems have a power of up to 100 kW.

Italy has registered a newly installed PV capacity of 369 MW in 2016, according to preliminary data released by local renewable energy association Anie Rinnovabili. This result represents 22% growth over the previous year, when approximately 300 MW of new installations were installed.

According to Anie Rinnovabili, most of the PV capacity installed last year comes from residential installations (up to 20 kW) and commercial systems (up to 100 kW). The association stressed that the growth for the residential segment was due to the fiscal incentives for sustainable house building and renovations, while the commercial sector took advantage of the policy for self-consumption.

According to the latest official statistic released by Italian grid-operator Terna, the country had 18.9 GW of installed PV capacity at the end of 2015. This means that currently Italy has surpassed 19.2 GW of cumulative installed solar power.

According to Terna, solar PV installations covered 7.2% of Italy¡¯s electricity demand with 25,587 GWH in 2016. Production from solar, however, last year decreased by 0.2% compared to 2015.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö SolarEdge to launch residential PV solution in Europe

Israeli headquartered power electronics specialist SolarEdge has announced that it is rolling out a complete solution for residential PV, consisting of inverter, storage and home automation system.

SolarEdge will showcase its new residential portfolio at European events throughout 2017. The products include the HD-Wave Inverter, the StorEdge solution for monitoring energy production and a device control suite to monitor self-consumption. The rollout will also include new three-phase inverters, which the company says are lighter, quieter, smaller and more efficient than previous offerings.

¡°SolarEdge is commited to making PV more accessible throughout Europe by providing innovative products,¡± says Alfred Karlstetter, General Manager of SolarEdge Europe. ¡°Our new offering covers a wide variety of homeowner needs, from increased production & self consumption to home automation.¡±

2017 has gotten off to a very busy start for SolarEdge, which posted its highest ever gross margin in financials for the quarter ended December 31st 2016. The company also announced a major expansion into the Japanese market earlier this week at PV Expo in Tokyo.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Spain installed PV systems totaling 55 MW in 2016

In 2016, Spain¡¯s solar development was driven by grid-connected PV systems for self-consumption and stand-alone systems for agricultural use.

In 2016, Spain saw the addition of new PV systems with a combined capacity of 55 MW, according to estimates released by Spanish solar association UNEF. Although last year¡¯s result is slightly up from the 49 MW registered in 2015, UNEF finds that the current regulation for self-consumption, as well as the lack of a clear regulatory framework for the country¡¯s energy auctions, is preventing solar energy from growing in line with other European countries.

The association also stressed that the capacity installed last year in Spain represents only 0.07% of the global solar power installed worldwide last year, estimated at 75 GW, according to data provided by the PV Market Alliance (PVMA).

UNEF has also blamed the solar tax for this limited growth. The current legislation for self-consumption, in fact, imposes charges on both existing and new installations, both on a capacity and generation level.

The Spanish government will hold an energy auction for renewable energy project in the first half of this year. Through the auction the government aims to allocate approximately 3 GW of renewable energy generation capacity.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Belgium¡¯s PV power surpasses 3.42 GW

Belgium has now over 3.4 GW of installed PV power. Most of this capacity, 2.45 GW, is located in the Flemish-speaking region of Flanders. The French-speaking region of Wallonia and the Brussels Metropolitan Region have reached 931 MW and 56 MW, respectively. In 2016, the country registered a 77% increase in new installations.

Belgium has reached 3.42 GW of installed PV power at the end of 2016, according to data collected by local renewable energy association Apere, which has combined the figures released by the country¡¯s three energy regulators Brugel, VREG, CwaPE.

Of this capacity, 2,451 MW are installed in the region of Flanders, while Wallonia and the Brussels Metropolitan Region have reached a cumulative capacity of 916 MW and 56 MW, respectively. Each of Belgium¡¯s three macro-regions has its own energy systems and its own policy for solar and renewables.

In 2016, Belgium saw a 77% increase in installations with around 170 MW of new PV systems connected to the grid. In the previous year, the new additions had totaled about 100 MW. Flanders, which is also the wealthiest region, registered the largest share of this new capacity with over 103 MW of new PV systems installed last year, followed by Wallonia with 64 MW and the Brussels Metropolitan Region with just 3 MW.

According to Apere, the newly installed PV power in Flanders is mostly represented by residential and commercial installations, while in Wallonia around the half of the capacity installed last year comes from large-scale PV plants, a segment which has seen limited development in the region in previous years.

Furthermore, the association reports that around 60% of the grid-connected PV systems in Belgium have a capacity of up to 10 kW. Yet, Apere reveals that PV was able to produce 2,9 TWh in 2016, thus covering 3.7% of Belgium¡¯s electricity demand.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö GCL New Energy secures go-ahead for $254 million of green bonds

The Shenzhen stock exchange has approved a proposal by Suzhou GCL New Energy Investment, a unit of the Chinese PV group, to issue the bonds.

If the company proceeds with the plan, it will offer the 1.75 billion yuan ($254.2 million) financial instruments for a term of up to three years, according to a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The group ¡ªwhich had cumulatively installed roughly 2.7 GW of solar by the end of June 2016 ¡ª emphasized that it may not end up issuing the bonds.

It intends to announce more details about the the proposed non-public issuance in the future, it said, without revealing a specific timeline.

It first revealed plans to offer the bonds in December, to fund the construction of undisclosed renewables projects.

Green bond issuance is soaring in China, with recent figures from China Central Depository & Clearing and the UK-based Climate Bonds Initiative showing that companies raised roughly 201 billion yuan in 2016.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Schneider, Acquion unveil storage project in southern Japan

Schneider Electric and Aquion Energy have revealed plans to lead a group of companies in pairing a 122 kW solar system with storage capacity in Kagoshima prefecture.

The PV+storage system will be installed in the third quarter, in cooperation with regional utility Kyushu Electric Power, according to an online statement.

Paris-based energy-management specialist Schneider will provide its Conext XW+ controller, which is a three-phase hybrid inverter with grid-tie functionality and dual AC power inputs, housed within a single unit.

PV-generated electricity will be stored in Pittsburgh-based Aquion¡¯s Aspen 48M-25.9 battery, a scalable saltwater storage solution based on the company¡¯s proprietary Aqueous Hybrid Ion technology.

¡±As more utilities and renewable energy developers around the world search for a safe and truly renewable alternative to lithium-ion storage solutions, we see a significant opportunity for continued expansion into global markets for our Aspen battery series,¡± said Aquion chief executive Scott Pearson.

Aquion says the non-flammable, non-explosive unit is designed to operate for long periods of time to store PV-generated electricity in stationary residential, off-grid, microgrid and grid-scale projects.

The companies will design the project ¡ª to be developed with Osaka-based PV installer EIWAT Solar ¡ª as a scalable model for future installations.

Interest in utility-scale storage applications ¡ª paired with both solar and wind in a range of configurations ¡ª has been rising for the past several years in Japan.

In 2013, Sumitomo Electric Industries was one of the first companies to experiment with storage, when it was selected by Japan¡¯s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to install a 60 MWh vanadium redox flow battery bank on the island of Hokkaido.

In early 2014, the Sumitomo group ¡ª in cooperation with Nissan Motor and the Ministry of Environment ¡ª paired used lithium-ion vehicle batteries with a 10 MW solar project in Osaka.

In 2015, Hitachi and several of its partners started building a 1.5 MW hybrid storage system on the isolated volcanic island of Izu Oshima, about 100 kilometres south of Tokyo.

Mitsubishi Electric also revealed plans in 2015 to install NGK Insulators¡¯ sodium sulphur batteries as part of a 50 MW project in Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan.

In early 2016, Toshiba began operating a 40 MW-40 MWh storage system to regulate output from solar and wind projects in Fukushima prefecture.

And a unit of regional utility Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) ¡ª in cooperation with French battery supplier Saft ¡ª started working on a PV-wind storage project in 2016 on the remote island of Niijima.

£¨Mar 2,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Eskom-Renewable energy IPP stand-off ¡®has been broken¡¯, says energy minister

The impasse between South African utility Eskom and the renewable energy IPPs ¡°has been broken¡±, according to energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson.

¡°Eskom has repeatedly said that it would not delay the implementation of the baseload,¡± she said yesterday at the Economic Sectors, Employment and Infrastructure Development Cluster briefing in Cape Town.

Joemat-Pettersson explained that Eskom had agreed a price for the remaining IPP PPAs and the cost recovery mechanism would be dealt with through the Regulatory Clearing Account (RCA). Eskom had previously told PV Tech that financial reasons were deterring it from signing the remaining PPAs under the fourth round of the renewable energy procurement programme (REIPPP), as well as grid overcapacity.

The stand-off between Eskom and the renewable energy industry was brought to a head after president Jacob Zuma confirmed during his state of the nation address last month that Eskom would comply, putting pressure on the utility to do so. However, the South Africa Renewable Energy Council (SAREC) recently said that Eskom was ¡°dragging its feet¡± in following through with Zuma¡¯s mandate, noting that the utility had not yet issued any budget quotes for the delayed projects.

It remains to be seen how soon Eskom will mobilise and make good on the energy minister¡¯s statement.

However, Thava Govender, Eskom group executive for transmission, still reiterated the utility¡¯s concern for the cost recovery mechanism for the IPPs.

¡°Eskom wishes to assert that it remains committed to government¡¯s energy procurement programmes and intends to sign budget quotations and power purchase agreements related to these programmes,¡± he said in a statement. ¡°This commitment will be carried out within a framework that takes into consideration the scale and pace of the roll-out of IPP procurement programmes, the long-term financial sustainability of Eskom and the value for money criteria vis-a-vis whether South Africa¡¯s customer base can afford the current IPP tariffs and their projected trajectory.¡±

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö PV CellTech Talk: Dr. Christian Buchner, SCHMID Group

SCHMID Group is one of the key sponsors of PV CellTech 2017, a company with over 1,200 employees and five production facilities around the world. A private company since its establishment in 1864 - means its involvement in the PV industry is relatively new but its position as one of the leading solar cell processing equipment and automation specialists is well recognised.

Ahead of PV CellTech 2017 SCHMID Group had launched a new texturing tool for diamond-wire-cut P-multi-c-Si wafers, which had already secured orders in the 500MW range. Such technology is seen as critical to P-type multi production migrating to PERC cell technology and a key topic at PV CellTech 2017. The company also noted that it expected a further 5GW of new orders for the tool in the first-half of 2017.

PV Tech spent time talking to SCHMID Group¡¯s Dr. Christian Buchner ahead of this years event to get his views on the challenges facing the PV manufacturing industry.

Not only is Dr. Christian Buchner the head of the business unit Photovoltaics at SCHMID Group but was an enthusiastic attendee at the inaugural PV CellTech and has since become an enthusiastic member of the PV CellTech advisory board and an active participant again at this year¡¯s event.

Why the enthusiasm?

¡°For sure PV CellTech is the highlight of the year for me,¡± noted Dr. Buchner. ¡°Like many in the industry the feeling was that we needed an event where industry players could talk more frankly, share ideas and have better individual exchanges, due to the quality of people and the topics discussed and this was the right event.¡±

What do you see as some of the key challenges facing the industry?

¡°I think everyone that is still active in aluminium BSF is in a very deadly spiral of higher cost, due to the increased adoption of PERC technology. The interesting presentation from Bob Chen and Andy Luan of Neo Solar Power at PV CellTech last year highlighted the win, win, win, scenario of P-type mono over P-type multi, highlights decisions that also need to be made to make the first steps to migrate to other product landscapes and higher efficiencies. The cost and volume production availability of mono could be a decider but as per last year¡¯s roadmap presentation by LONGi it looks possible that they could get there.¡±

¡°From an in-house technology perspective we want to be in sync with our industry partners on whichever technology roadmap is pursued, whether PERC or heterojunction and these technologies may not end up competing with each other. Of course this is a challenge in itself but our experience in the industry and product solutions makes us very confident in meeting that challenge.

Without giving too much away here, Dr. Buchner will be covering in detail more of the technology challenges in his presentation at the event.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö SolarEdge rolls out new integrated residential solution throughout Europe

SolarEdge is rolling out a new complete residential solution throughout Europe that combines inverters, storage and home automation. The idea is to manage and monitor electricity consumption, solar energy generation and storage through one central device control that enables enhanced energy independence and increases self-consumption.

¡°SolarEdge is committed to making PV more accessible throughout Europe by providing innovative products that offer greater value. Homeowners that use solar energy can lower household expenses by reducing their electricity bills,¡± said Alfred Karlstetter, general manager of SolarEdge Europe. ¡°Our new residential offering covers a wide variety of homeowner needs that range from increased production and maximizing self-consumption to home automation."

The solution features SolarEdge¡¯s HD-Wave single-phase inverter, StorEdge solution, device control suite, the new three-phase residential inverter and supporting device control that shifts consumption to meet PV production patterns.

This residential portfolio is now accessible in Wels, Austria; Lyons, France; and in the Netherlands. It will also be presented at the company¡¯s EU-wide roadshow and in its show in Benelux in cooperation with leading mounting supplier Esdec.

In other news, SolarEdge reported fourth quarter and full-year 2016 results that were impacted by a slowdown in the US residential market in the second-half of the year. European and Asia markets helped revenue grow 15% in 2016.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-tech.org

¡ö JinkoSolar in deal to build 1.2GWp solar plant in Abu Dhabi

Leading ¡®Silicon Module Super League¡¯ (SMSL) member JinkoSolar has established a consortium with Marubeni Corporation and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company to build a 1,177MWp (DC) PV power plant in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

A special purpose company jointly owned by the consortium will construct, operate and maintain the PV plant for the duration of a signed 25-year PPA. The project was said to be located in the Eastern Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, approximately 120 km east of the city of Abu Dhabi in Sweihan.

JinkoSolar and Marubeni originally submitted a bid for the 1,177MWp solar PV capacity, with a base tariff of just US$0.0242/kWh.

PV Tech understands that the true LCOE in Sweihan was much higher than the base tariff of US$0.0242/kWh. In order to reduce the amount of gas to be imported in summer for power production, ADWEA stipulated that the tariffs quoted would be multiplied by a factor of 1.6 in the months from June to September, which would mean a temporarily elevated tariff of US$0.0387/kWh. Taking this into account, the actual LCOE would be US$0.0294/kWh, which is remarkably close to the low results seen in the Dubai tender from DEWA earlier in 2016 (US$0.0299/kWh).

"Today's important milestone is a highly significant event for both the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and also for the global Solar PV market," commented H.E Abdullah Ali Musleh Al Ahbabi, Chairman of ADWEA. "Not only will the Project, once constructed, be the world's largest single utility scale solar PV plant, but the price of net electrical energy that we have agreed to today is one of the most competitive prices seen to date in the Solar PV industry."

"We are excited to be a part of the significant milestone project to co-develop with ADWEC and Marubeni. The execution of the PPA demonstrates our strong technical skills, reliable high-efficiency products and development capabilities," commented Xiande Li, Chairman of JinkoSolar. "We are proud of making a significant contribution to the development of the solar industry in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi."

Financial agreements for the massive project, the largest expected in the region should close in April 2017, according to JinkoSolar with commercial operation expected to begin in 2019.

JinkoSolar recently guided 2017 PV module shipments to be in the range of 8.5GW and 9.0GW, a potentially astonishing sequential growth rate after reporting 6.65GW of module shipments in 2016, an increase of 47.5% from 4.5GW in 2015.

This article has been updated to include an explanation of the true LCOE of the Sweihan project and the fact that the original bid was for 1,117MW capacity.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Unilever chooses Unisun for renewable energy projects across Asia

China-based renewables firm Unisun Energy Group and consumer goods provider Unilever North Asia are partnering on a 13.4MW distributed generation solar PV project in China¡¯s Anhui Province.

Based around the Renaissance Hotel in Hefei City, solar will be installed on separate rooftops at Unilever¡¯s Hefei global manufacturing base, logistics park and Jinshan food factory.

In 2015 Unilever set a target to have 100% of its energy come from renewable sources by 2030 and Unisun will now act as one of Unilever¡¯s major renewable energy suppliers in China after an agreement was signed.

Unilever¡¯s Hefei Logistics Park will have a 6.8MW system installed with energy to be fully exported to the state power grid, while three other projects will be designed for net metering. Construction is to start this month, with grid connection expected in July.

Yisha He, chairman at Unisun Energy Group, said: ¡°Unisun hopes that its cooperation with Unilever North Asia will open a new chapter for both companies in terms of renewables adoption.¡±

Unisun has already worked with major companies including food and beverage giants the Uni-President and Wahaha Groups.

Yisha He also noted that the firm has a distributed generation solar PV project pipeline in excess of 500MW, which is expected to exceed the 1GW mark by the end of the 2017 fiscal year.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Indiana Senate passes bill to slash solar incentives

Much of the financial incentive for installing residential solar systems will be eliminated in the coming years under a new bill officially passed by the Indiana Senate 39-9 on Monday evening.

The controversial bill which reduces the compensation solar users can receive through net metering has been scaled-back since its initial introduction to the Senate; as it formally proposed a total wipe out of net metering by 2027, replacing it with a ¡®sell all, buy all system¡¯.

Confusion surrounded the bill as author Brandt Hershman had influenced other lawmakers to vote for SB 309 under false assumptions that all financial incentives for installing solar systems would disappear unless the bill was passed. This caused clean energy advocates to criticise the bill and argue that some of Hershman¡¯s misstatements may have unfairly influenced the committee vote.

Despite some public confusion, Hershman insists that the bill is actually a good move for Indiana¡¯s solar industry.

¡°It expands the ability of people to generate power for their own needs and to sell the excess back to the grid,¡± he said.

He also said that the concern over compensation rates will be a moot point as the cost and efficiency of solar technology improves.

Solar supporters would likely disagree, considering the bill drastically reduces that rate in five years, whilst allowing anyone who installed a PV system after June but before 2022 to be grandfathered until 2032 but anyone after the 2022 cut-off point would only receive a lower rate of compensation for their power.

In fact, by 2047, solar users would likely receive little more than the wholesale rate for their power ¨C rather than the current, higher retail rate ¨C a difference of around US$0.08/kWh.

In response to the harmful effect on state solar, some senators tried to amend the bill before its passing, to no avail. Senator Mark Stoops was one such advocate, who argued that the bill discourages homeowners from installing solar. He offered two amendments last week to send the bill to a study committee, with both failing.

The bill now advances to the House for a final vote.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Malaysia to auction 460MW of large-scale solar PV

The Energy Commission of Malaysia (EC) has issued a Request for Proposla (RfP) document hoping to auction up to 460MWac of large-scale solar capacity.

Under EC¡¯s second competitive bidding programme, it hopes to awards projects of 1-30MW capacity to make up a total of 360MW in Peninsular Malaysia and 100MW in Sabah and Labuan in the East.

All solar plants will be connected to the grid, with power purchase agreements to be signed with the main utilities Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) or Sabah Electricity Sdn. Bhd. (SESB).

The RfP document was made available last week and the deadline for submissions is 1 August 2017.

Last November PV Tech caught up with Catherine Ridu, chief executive officer of the Malaysia Sustainable Development Authority (SEDA) to discuss the policies needed to drive solar in the Southeast Asian country.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö East Africa¡¯s largest industrial solar system installed in Kenya

Commercial, industrial and residential solar provider SolarAfrica has commissioned one of Kenya¡¯s largest solar hybrid systems in Malindi, in East Africa.

The 991kWp system is a PV-diesel hybrid project developed for Kenyan salt producer Krystalline Salt. The system will generate 1.6GWh of clean electricity annually, saving Krystalline around 22% of its electricity costs.

The project was developed in collaboration with SMA subsidiary SMA Sunbelt, using its Fuel Save Controller which complements the diesel generator and works to offset solar¡¯s fluctuating energy source for a harmonised delivery of power. The project was installed by local Kenyan installers Harmonic Systems, who managed to commission the project two months ahead of schedule. In terms of funding, the project was made possible through the government of Japan¡¯s Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) financing programme that facilitates low-carbon technologies in developing countries.

¡°We are very pleased to see this project come together in such a short period of time, given the many challenges in doing a project in rural Africa,¡± said Noriko Ishibashi, researcher of Pacific Consultants from Japan. ¡°We believe this project will greatly contribute to the joint efforts between the Kenyan and Japanese governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the bilaterally agreed JCM.¡±

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Meyer Burger wins significant PERC upgrade order

Leading PV manufacturing equipment supplier Meyer Burger Technology has secured a major order from an existing PV manufacturing customer in China to deploy its PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Contact) cell technology upgrade tools.

The new order, valued at CHF 24 million (US$23.7 million) was said to be the first in an overall framework contract with the customer.

Meyer Burger said that the significant order was for the delivery and installation of its MAiA 2.1 PECVD deposition technology platform.

The delivery and commissioning of the equipment is scheduled for the second quarter of 2017.

According to Taiwan-based solar market research firm EnergyTrend, solar cell manufacturing capacity dedicated to PERC technology is expected to almost double in 2017, reaching around 25GW.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Heraeus Photovoltaics launches first product outside solar cell metallization pastes

Major metallization paste producer Heraeus Photovoltaics has launched its first commercial product outside its solar cell metallization paste domain.

The company has targeted the multicrystalline silicon ingot manufacturing sector, accounting for more than 80% of the current wafer market with a high-purity SiO2 diffusion barrier coating dubbed HeraGlaze for enhanced crucible performance.

¡°HeraGlaze opens a new chapter in our roadmap as a technology leader and provides our customers with more added value,¡± noted Andreas Liebheit, President of Heraeus Photovoltaics. ¡°It¡¯s our first product beyond solar cell metallization and another R&D landmark, which enables our customers to realize further efficiency gains.¡±

HeraGlaze comes in a slurry form, which is applied on the porous surface of the crucibles carrying polysilicon chunks that are melted and formed into silicon ingots in a DSS furnace. This can be done directly at the production site of the customer.

HeraGlaze acts as a high-purity SiO2 diffusion barrier and prevents that thermally induced impurities such as iron that are transferred from the crucible into the silicon ingot during the melting and crystallization process. The higher wafer yield is achieved by increasing the usable section of a silicon ingot.

According to Heraeus Photovoltaics the wafer yield is increased by up to 4% and cell efficiency is improved by 0.1%. With an assumed an annual wafer production of 50GW today, the adoption of HeraGlaze would deliver close to an additional 2GW per year of ingot/wafer output without increasing wafer production capacity.

In recent years the multicrystalline wafer sector has come under increases pressure to reduce production costs and retain a competitive cost advantage over the resurgence of monocrystalline wafer production that has lower costs via larger area wafers and a host of production innovations to close the gap between the two wafer types.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Japan to lower tariffs, cancel projects after paying £¤2.3tr last year for FiTs

Japan is set to lower its levels of feed-in tariff (FiT) payments once again, while a multi-gigawatt pipeline of unbuilt large-scale PV projects will be ¡°cancelled¡± at the beginning of April.

On the opening day of World Smart Energy Week, incorporating the PV Expo show in Tokyo, Toshimitsu Fujiki, a director at Japan¡¯s government Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), confirmed that a ¡°new FiT system¡± will be in effect from the beginning of the new financial year, 1 April.

While Fujiki did not allude to how much would now be payable for the power generated at various scales, drops of 10% and 11% have not been uncommon in the past couple of years, with the average FiT payment currently standing at around £¤21 (US$0.19)/kWh. Japan¡¯s renewable energy FiT has primarily fostered solar development rather than other forms of generation such as wind and biomass and Fujiki said that in 2016, the Japanese government paid out £¤2.3 trillion in tariffs.

¡°There are great possibilities [for renewable energy] but we must reduce costs,¡± Fujiki said, referencing recent tenders in Abu Dhabi that secured project development at just US$0.03/kWh as an example of what might be achieved.

METI will hold briefing seminars around Japan in order to educate and discuss with stakeholders how to introduce more renewables into the energy mix while reducing the taxpayer burden. The METI official said repeatedly that one important aspect of this was the concept of ¡°local production and local consumption¡±. This could refer to self-consumption of PV, particularly in non-grid connected systems, as well as local consumption of PV. Fujiki ruled out the prospect of widespread build-out of more transmission lines to carry the power, emphasising the ¡°local¡± dimension of the idea.

¡°We have to think of better ways to utilise existing [transmission] lines. We have to study this,¡± Fujiki said, adding that METI was likely to create new agencies to support self-consumption policies and sector coupling.

Confirmation of tenders and cancellation of unbuilt projects

Some 57GW of large-scale PV projects were registered for the FiT in the first two or three years of the scheme¡¯s introduction after 2012, with would-be developers taking advantage of relatively relaxed rules on what constituted a project¡¯s planning documents.

PV-Tech has reported extensively on this ¡®pipeline¡¯, with many non-PV firms jumping into the industry and putting forward plans to build facilities. In some cases it has been suspected that after taking the rights to build solar farms at FiT rates of as much as £¤42 per kilowatt, developers have intentionally waited for equipment prices to keep dropping to maximise their profits.

Following much speculation on the fate of these several dozen gigawatts of projects, Fujiki of METI confirmed today in a keynote address at the expo¡¯s conference that as of 1 April, projects unbuilt or without concrete plans to go ahead in place will lose their rights to the FiT and will be cancelled. In the most recent edition of PV Tech Power, Solar Media¡¯s technical journal for the downstream solar industry, Japanese industry analyst Dr Hiroshi Matsukawa of research group RTS PV estimated that as much as half to two-thirds of that 57GW pipeline is likely to be axed.

Fujiki also confirmed that as part of the ongoing streamlining of renewable energy policy, Japan will introduce tenders and auctions for PV projects over 2MW in size as of this year. RTS¡¯ Matsukawa also said in that PV Tech Power article that he believed these would be annual auctions of 500MW at a time.

Energy efficiency, Zero Energy Homes, hydrogen and negawatts

Fujiki¡¯s keynote address focused also on energy efficiency measures in Japan, stating that huge strides have been taken in improving energy efficiency in factories and service industries, with Japan¡¯s economy still reliant on heavy industries such as chemical processing and steel.

Of immediate interest to the PV industry is the increasing focus on residential energy efficiency, most notably in the creation of Zero Energy Home (ZEH) standards. These net-zero energy houses would as a matter of course include PV and energy storage as well as double-glazed windows and other forms of insulation.

Fujiki said many housebuilders had described ZEH as a difficult goal to attain, but he said it was ¡°critical¡± that such steps were taken, with the government expected to make all new homes net-zero energy dwellings by 2020.

Also being put forward are ¡°negawatt trading schemes¡±, including demand response and the aggregation of distributed energy resources into virtual power plants (VPPs), which Fujiki said detailed regulations have been in the process of drafting at METI since last October.

Finally, Japan is also betting big on hydrogen fuel cells, with the country¡¯s car manufacturers being the world¡¯s first to produce commercial hydrogen vehicles including Toyota¡¯s Mirai, with several hundred miles¡¯ fuel range. Only 92 hydrogen refuelling stations so far are in operation in Japan, but they have already become commercialised, Fujiki said. In addition, over 170,000 hydrogen fuel cells for households were installed last year at private residences in Japan, Fujiki said.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-tech.org£©

¡ö Comtec buys 51% of Chinese rooftop PV developer

The Shanghai-based integrated solar specialist has completed the purchase of 51% of the entire issued share capital of developer Forum (Asia).

It first revealed the planned 52.2 million yuan ($7.6 million) acquisition last November.

Forum will become a non-wholly owned unit of Comtec Solar Systems, with its financial statements to be consolidated with those of the group, according to a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Forum installs residential rooftop solar arrays throughout mainland China.

By the end of December, the Hong Kong-based developer is expected to complete about 15 MW of distributed-generation PV capacity.

It aims to connect 77 MW of rooftop capacity to the Chinese grid by the end of 2019.

The completion of Forum is part of Comtec¡¯s ongoing expansion into downstream PV development, which is a future growth priority for the group.

In early January, Comtec said it expected to post a ¡°substantial¡± net loss for the year to the end of December, partly because of its decision to sell production assets in Malaysia to Chinese silicon producer Longi at a steep discount of 200 million yuan.

It also revealed plans in January to install smart energy charging facilities for electric vehicles (EVs) in the Chinese city of Luoyang, Henan province.

Comtec ¡ª which produces silicon ingots and wafers ¡ª also unveiled plans in December to develop an undisclosed amount of solar capacity in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, over the next three years.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö European Commission confirms 18-month extension of antidumping and anti-subsidy tariffs, with a staged phase-out

The European Union will see an extension to hotly contested duties on Chinese PV exporters by 18 months. A spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed the move with pv magazine today, adding that the duties will be phased out, in line with industry cost reductions.

After conducting an investigation and then the ensuing debate among member nations, the European Commission has decided on an 18-month extension to antidumping (AD) and anti-subsidy duties applied to Chinese solar exports to the EU. Final confirmation of the move will come with publication in the EU¡¯s Offical Journal.

In a statement issued to pv magazine today, a Commission spokesperson confirmed that both measures would be extended for a further 18 months. However, the measures are likely to be phased out over time, ¡°in line with cost reductions in the solar industry,¡± the EC spokesperson added.

The EC will open an interim review of the measures, to formulate a schedule for tariff reduction.

¡°This approach balances our legitimate right to protect our industry from unfair competition from dumped or subsidized imports, with the need to consider other companies that rely on these imports to develop their final products and employ thousands of people,¡± the spokesperson added.

The ¡°essential role¡± that PV is playing in achieving greenhouse gas reduction goals was ¡°an important factor¡± in the decision.

The EC describes the discussion of the tariffs as having been ¡°constructive.¡± An EU Appeals Court had upheld the AD and anti-subsidy tariffs in hearings on February 17.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Germany registers 117 MW of new PV installations in January

Germany has registered 117 MW of new PV installations in January. The country¡¯s cumulative PV capacity has reached approximately 41.34 GW.

In the first month of this year, Germany registered new PV installations totaling 111 MW, according to the latest statistics released by German grid-operator Bundesnetzagentur. This capacity, however, includes 446 PV systems totaling 75 MW which came online in December 2016 and other 15 MW which came online before December or after January.

Due to this registration schedule, the real new capacity installed in January was of only 27.4 MW, a result not exactly in line with the development registered in the previous months. This was probably due to the fact that many developers, which had completed their projects in January, have decided to connect their systems to the grid later in February, expecting a 1.5% FIT raise which will never materlialised, due to the high volumes registered in December. The level of the FIT incentive for the first quarter of the year in Germany is set by the Bundesnetzagentur depending on the development volume in the second half of the previous year.

Compared to the last month of 2016, when around 450 MW of new installations were connected to the grid, January¡¯s result may seem disappointing. December¡¯s growth, however, was mainly due to the effect of the expiration of Germany¡¯s renewable energy law (EEG) at the end of the year and the entry into force of the new renewable energy regulation, the EEG 2017.

At the end of January 2017, Germany had reached a cumulative installed PV capacity of 41.34 GW. In 2016, the country added approximately 1.52 GW of new solar power.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Enphase narrows losses in Q4 results

The company appears to be making progress with its restructuring, as it continues to launch increasingly sophisticated home energy solutions.

Enphase has been a visionary in the global solar industry, as a pioneer and leader in the microinverter space, as well as the first company to launch an AC-wired home battery solution.

However, like many innovative companies in the PV and energy storage space Enphase, or rather its investors and former employees, have paid a price for the company being a leader. Enphase has struggled to with hold its own against other power electronics makers with competing and less expensive solutions, and has not turned a profit in a year and a half.

However, Enphase¡¯s Q4 2016 financial results show that the company is moving back towards a stronger position. During the quarter Enphase increased revenue 38% year-over-year to $91 million, while shipping 194 MW-AC of microinverters, bringing it to a record 726 MW-AC shipped over the full year 2016.

And while Enphase is still dripping red ink, the company¡¯s margins are recovering. Enphase brought its operating margin to -11% during the quarter, up from -20% in the prior quarter, and narrowed losses to $12 million.

Enphase has been on a precarious path since making a decision to cut prices to reduce market share in late 2015, which was followed by significant restructuring beginning in 2016, including repeatedly reducing staff and off-loading its residential O&M arm.

As dangerous as it is to dive into negative margins to pursue market share gains, these measures appear to be yielding fruit. ¡°We saw the effectiveness of our lower pricing strategy with new customer wins and an increasing share with existing customers,¡± said Enphase CEO Paul Nahi on the company¡¯s results call. ¡°During the second half of 2016, we had significant market share growth in almost every geography in which we participate.¡±

Enphase estimates that its market share in the United States grew 50% from Q1 to Q4 of 2016, and additionally claims market share leadership in Mexico, Puerto Rico, France and New Zealand, and says that it is gaining share in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia.

And while the restructuring clearly is helping its bottom line, the numbers are less clear. Enphase estimates that Q3 restructuring measures saved the company $20 million during Q4, but did not offer a number for savings on a GAAP basis.

As can be expected, these trying circumstances have put Enphase in a difficult cash position. Enphase dropped to only $17.8 million in cash by the end of Q4, but since the beginning of the year has received bailouts from institutional investors, including finalizing a $50 million extension of a long-term loan facility two weeks ago.

And while the company struggles to return to profitability, Enphase has not slowed on getting its products out to new markets. During the fourth quarter Enphase launched its AC battery storage solution in Europe and the United States, after making it available in Australia and New Zealand in the third quarter.

Additionally, during since the beginning of 2017 the company launched its Enphase Home Energy Solution with IQ, an integrated solar, storage and energy management offering, and expects to begin deliveries in March.

The Enphase Home Energy System features the company¡¯s sixth-generation microinverter, which has been incorporated into PV modules by LG, SolarWorld and JinkoSolar, which Enphase says provides a simpler warranty process, one-stop technical support and other advantages. Enphase plans to introduce its seventh-generation microinverter in the first quarter of 2018.

As for financials, Enphase expects $60-65 million in revenues in the first quarter of 2017. The mid-point of this is slightly below its results from a year ago, which Enphase blames on unfavorable weather for installation in its prime market, California.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö PV hybrid system to save 22% on electricity costs for Kenyan salt producer

A 991 kW PV array will supply Kenya¡¯s largest salt producer with 22% of its electricity, in a diesel-hybrid system delivered by SolarAfrica. The system was supported by a grant from the Japanese government¡¯s Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM).

African commercial, industrial (C&I) and residential PV developer SolarAfrica has completed what it claims to be Kenya¡¯s largest C&I solar system. The 991 kW solar-diesel hybrid system will replace 22% of the Krystalline Salt Limited¡¯s diesel consumption annually.

The SMA Fuel Save Controller system was deployed on the array.

The project accessed JCM financing, provided by the Japanese government, which is targeting at assisting Kenya reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

¡°I am very happy that the PV Hybrid System entered operation ahead of schedule and we can save 22% of our annual electricity costs in the future thanks to a 55% solar power share during daylight hours¡± said Deepak Patel, Managing Director of Krystalline Salt Limited, in a statement.

¡°Kaysalt has clearly set a new standard for industrial power users to follow,¡± said SolarAfrica¡¯s Commercial Director, Johan Pienaar. ¡°It has been a privilege to play a part in Kaysalt achieving their sustainability goals, and by making use of the JCM grant, delivering the solar system at the required ROI.¡±

As grid capacity in many parts of Africa may not be sufficiently robust to handle large volumes of on-grid PV, off or edge-of-grid solutions are particularly attractive. With falling costs, distributed arrays aimed at diesel replacement or supplementation is becoming increasingly competitive.

Christoph Ehlers, Chief Operating Officer of ACWA Power¡¯s renewables division, told attendees at the 2016 Africa New Energy conference that offgrid applications are growing in appeal. ¡°In the next couple of years, the big opportunity is decentralized networks ¨C it could be with PV, [or] with wind ¨C in order to leapfrog the expensive, time-consuming build of the transmission system.¡±

In a recent survey, it was found that communities and businesses in Kenya who had access to solar power and microgrids were able to greatly reduce reliance on diesel generators and kerosene for lighting.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö REC Solar module shipments for 2016 exceed 1.2 GW

The Norwegian solar manufacturer saw its module shipments increase 9% year-on-year to 1,266 GW in 2016. A strong fourth quarter was the main driver for this performance. Americas accounted for about 53% of the company¡¯s shipments last year, while in the EMEA and APAC markets REC Solar sold 32% and 15% of its products, respectively.

The Norwegian solar manufacturer REC Solar, a subsidiary of Chinese chemical company China National Bluestar Group, has reported that its global module shipments for 2016 reached 1,266 MW. This result represents a 9% increase compared to 2015, when the company shipped 1,159 MW. In 2014 and 2013 total shipments reached 918 MW and 834 MW, respectively.

In the fourth quarter alone, REC Solar registered shipments in the amount of 349 MW. This quarter, the company said, was the second best quarter ever, the best quarter ever in EMEA and the second best quarter ever in APAC. Furthermore, the company said it was able to double its market share in Germany to 13% during the latest quarter.

Americas accounted for around 53% of REC Solar shipments last year. In this region demand was particularly strong for residential PV projects, the company stressed in its report. Shipments to Americas, however, declined by 33% over the third quarter of last year.

The company has not provided specific figures about sales in terms of revenue and average selling prices.

Furthemore, REC Solar said in the report that Elkem Solar, which is a solar-grade silicon producer also owned by China National Bluestar Group, has secured a 25.6 million NOK ($3 million) funding from Norwegian public company Enova. The company intends to use the funds for restructuring and investments in the production process.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö JinkoSolar, Marubeni sign 25-year PPA for 1.177 GW Sweihan project at $0.0242/kWh

The JinkoSolar and Marubeni Corporation consortium developing the 1.177 GW (DC) Sweihan PV power plant project in Abu Dhabi has signed a 25-year PPA with a Abu Dhabi Water and Electric Authority (ADWEA) subsidiary. The power price is one of the lowest ever achieved by a utility scale project globally.

In what is a landmark development, China¡¯s JinkoSolar and Japan¡¯s Marubeni will join forces to develop one the world¡¯s largest PV power plant in Abu Dhabi. The Sweihan project will not only be vast in size, but will also sell power under a 25-year PPA at a record-setting low price.

JinkoSolar has confirmed with pv magazine the PPA price is of $0.0242/kWh.

The Sweihan project will supply electricity to a fast-growing region within Abu Dhabi, and heralds solar¡¯s arrival as a highly competitive power source in the Middle East.

Construction on the truly vast 1.177 GW power plant will begin in April, with completion and full commercial operation set for early 2019.

¡°Not only will the project, once constructed, be the world¡¯s largest single utility scale solar PV plant, but the price of net electrical energy that we have agreed to today is one of the most competitive prices seen to date in the solar PV industry,¡± said Abdullah Ali Musleh Al Ahbabi, Chairman of ADWEA.

Officially the PPA has been signed with ADWEC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ADWEA.

¡°We are excited to be a part of the significant milestone project to co-develop with ADWEC and Marubeni,¡± said Jinko Chairman Xiande Li. ¡°We are proud of making a significant contribution to the development of the solar industry in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.¡±

The Sweihan project was awarded through a competitive bidding process managed by ADWEA. Given its vast size, bidding parties were encouraged to form consortia.

In September 2016, pv magazine reported that JinkoSolar and Marubeni putting in the most price competitive bid of just $0.0242 per kWh. At that time, there were some media reports that the lowest bid, of the six shortlisted consortia, came in at $0.023/kWh.

In the initial stages of its development, the Sweihan project was slated for a capacity of 350 MW. Presumably, as a result of the low bids, ADWEA chose to expand its final capacity to the more than 1.1 GW (AC) announced today.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö NEC Energy Solutions to build and operate 50 MW storage facilities in the UK

U.S. battery manufacturer NEC Energy Solutions has signed a contract to supply and operate 50 MW of grid level storage split over two projects in the UK.

The two storage applications will be owned by VLC Energy, a newly created joint venture between renewable energy investors Low Carbon and VPI Immingham, which owns one of Europe¡¯s largest combined heat & power plants in the north of Engand.

The projects will include a 40 MW facility in Glassenbury, South East England and a further 10 MW in Cleator in the North West. Both sites secured contracts with the national grid in August 2016 to provide UK system operators with enhanced frequency response through battery energy storage.

NEC will provide EPC services including its GSS turnkey solution, installation and commissioning, as well as 10 years of O&M services for each project. Project execution has already begun and the systems are expected to be grid connected in November.

¡°We¡¯re delighted to work with NEC Energy Solutions to develop the UK¡¯s largest portfolio of energy storage plants for the National Grid,¡± said Low Carbon Operations Director Justin Thesiger. ¡°These battery sites will pave the way for more renewable energy to be connected to the UK¡¯s overall power mix, by helping to balance energy supply and demand more effectively.¡±

The UK¡¯s huge potential for energy storage applications was confirmed at last month¡¯s Energy Storage Conference, held in London by the Renewable Energy Association. These projects from NEC Energy Solutions are an encouraging sign, but only time will tell if the correct policies and business models can be put in place for the country to realize this potential.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö France¡¯s PV capacity tops 7.13 GW

French cumulative PV capacity has surpassed 7 GW. In 2016, however, the market registered a 62% decrease in new installations, with the figure coming in at 559 MW. PV plants over 250 kW covered almost two thirds of the new capacity installed last year.

France had reached a cumulative installed PV capacity of 7,134 MW as of the end of December 2016, according to the latest statistics released by the French Ministry of the Environment, Energy and the Sea.

In 2016, 15,970 PV systems with a combined capacity of 559 MW were installed in the country. This is 62% down from 2015, when 17,822 PV systems totaling 894 MW were connected to the grid. The Ministry stressed that last year¡¯s increase in capacity was the lowest since 2009.

PV projects with a power over 250 kW covered about two thirds of the new capacity, although these installations represented only 1% of all the PV systems which came online last year. Of the cumulative capacity, 3,627 MW comes from installations exceeding 250 kW of power, while PV systems with a power range between 100 kW and 250 kW reach a total of 1,020 MW. Installations under 100 kW account for the remaining capacity.

The French regions with the highest amount of installed solar power are Nouvelle Aquitanie (1,732 MW), Occitanie (1,472 MW), Provence-Alpes-C?te d¡¯Azur (945 MW) and Auvergne-Rh?ne-Alpes (705 MW).

Furthermore, the ministry reports that last year power generation from PV source increased 14% to 7.7 TWh compared to 2015. Despite this growth, solar still remains a marginal source in the country¡¯s energy system covering only 1.6% of energy demand. In 2015, solar was able to cover 1.4% of demand.

The report reveals that there are additional PV projects pending authorization with a combined capacity of 2,368 MW.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Meyer Burger continues strong start to 2017 with $23.7 million PERC upgrade order

The PERC upgrade cycle continues at pace in 2017, with it continuing to deliver orders to Swiss equipment supply giant Meyer Burger. Today it announced a new $23.7 million order for an unnamed Chinese manufacturer.

Meyer Burger will provide the Chinese solar manufacturer with its upgrade equipment and technologies. The order is for delivery and installation of the MAiA 2.1 technology platform. The company stressed that the order comes together with an overall framework contract, which it has signed with the client.

The new equipment will be produced this year and commissioned at the client¡¯s factory in the second quarter of 2017.

Meyer Burger has made a strong start to 2017 with several orders. Based on previously released figures, pv magazine estimates that the Swiss equipment provider has secured at least CHF 89 million (US$88.1 million) worth of new orders in the first two months of this year.

PERC technology will see a strong expansion this year. According to Taiwan-based analysts Energy Trend, 2017 is likely to see PERC¡¯s economies of scale gradually appear. Energy Trend expects PERC capacity expansion this year may range between 12 and 15 GW. Moreover, solar manufacturers could also become able to produce mainstream mono-Si PERC product with an output of 300 W by the end of this year. Currently, solar manufacturers are implementing PERC technologies on mono-Si products, rather than multi-Si PERC, due to limited capacities of equipment providers.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Xinyi Solar¡¯s net profit soars 65% in 2016

The Chinese solar glass manufacturer reported net income of HK$1,985.6 million ($255.8 million) in the 12 months to the end of December, from HK$1,205.6 million a year earlier.

Group revenue rose 26.5% on the year to HK$6,007.1 million, as sales of photovoltaic glass products ¡ª including ultra-clear PV raw glass and ultra-clear PV processed glass ¡ª jumped 82.3% on the year to HK$4,276.5 million.

Sales of electricity from Xinyi Solar¡¯s 14 PV projects rose from HK$313.0 million to HK$1,049.8 million.

¡°(We have) not encountered any curtailment in electricity generation,¡± it said, noting that all of its PV projects are located in provinces such as Anhui, Hubei, Henan and Fujian, where electricity demand is high.

However, it said that it continued to experience delays in collecting project subsidies from the government throughout the year.

The company ¡ª based in Wuhu, Anhui province ¡ª was operating 1.46GW of grid-connected solar capacity by the end of December, up from 610 MW a year earlier.

Its operational PV generation portfolio ¡ª which accounted for 17.5% of total group revenue ¡ª expanded by 490 MW in the second half of 2016, according to the group¡¯s audited consolidated results.

Sales of PV glass accounted for 71.2% of its revenue, with exports accounting for just 14.8% of total sales in 2016. Its shipments of PV glass to the US and Japanese markets fell, while its sales to the Chinese market increased.

Last month, the group opened a new ultra-clear PV raw glass production line ¡ª with melting capacity of 1,000 tons per day ¡ª in Wuhu.

Income from Xinyi Solar¡¯s EPC business accounted for 11.3% of total revenue, at HK$680.7 million.

That included HK$515.7 million from residential projects in Anhui province, HK$127.8 million from a 100MW utility-scale array in Anhui that it holds a 50% stake in, while HK$37.2 million came from other, miscellaneous projects.

¡°EPC services, though not a key profit contributor to the group, can help it to exploit (the) potential of the distributed generation market and broaden its presence in the PV downstream market,¡± the company said.

Last April, it purchased a 60% stake in Canadian PV installer Polaron Solartech for roughly HK$8.96 million. It said that the investment will help it to gain more solar development experience, particularly with distributed-generation projects.

Xinyi Solar finished its first floating solar array ¡ª a 20 MW installation in Huainan, Anhui province ¡ª last April. In October, it won a tender to build another 150 MW floating project in Anhui.

The company ¡ª which started developing PV projects more than two years ago ¡ª aims to complete 600 to 800 MW of solar capacity in 2017.

It is preparing to spin off its development business, but it has not said when it will do so.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö ECJ Judgement: Antidumping and anti-subsidy measures against China are legal

The Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxemburg this week confirmed the validity of the import duties, rejecting all complaints from 26 PV manufacturers. In the opinion of the judges the measures are necessary to compensate damage caused to the European solar industry by dumped imports from China.

Shortly before the European Commission¡¯s final decision on the extension of existing antidumping and anti-subsidy measures against Chinese manufacturers, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) confirmed the validity of the tariffs. Investigations in 2012 and 2013 showed Chinese solar modules being sold well below market value in Europe.

26 companies brought the action before the Court for annulment of the average duties of 47.7%. The Judges reject all of their complaints, as well as further objections to the level of import duties imposed.

According to the Judges, other potential causes of damage, such as imports from Taiwan, and the reduction of aid to certain EU countries, were sufficiently taken into account by the duties against Chinese producers. None of these factors ¡°were considered capable of breaking the causal link established between the dumped imports originating in and consigned from China and the significant injury suffered by the EU industry,¡± according to the judgement. The Court¡¯s statement continues, stating: ¡°The undertakings challenging the antidumping and anti-subsidy measures have not put forward any argument or evidence before the Court capable of showing that the abovementioned factors had an effect of such significance that the existence of injury caused to the EU industry, and that of the causal link between that injury and the imports in question, were no longer reliable.¡±

The ruling was welcomed by EU Prosun, which initiated the antidumping and anti-subsidy proceedings against Chinese PV manufacturers, which ultimately led to the introduction of the measures in December 2013. ¡°Over the years, China has been building overcapacity in the solar sector and promoting dumping, especially in the EU,¡± EU Prosun President Milan Nitzschke told pv magazine. ¡°The introduction of these measures has at least partially restored fair competition.¡±

Solar Power Europe CEO James Watson said ¡°The judgement is entirely as expected, there is nothing illegal about the actions of the European Commission in relation to the case, the only point that is relevant is whether the trade measures really are in the interest of Europe.¡±

Safe, an association of German PV companies also opposes the measures, and described the judgement as ¡°no surprise¡±. ¡°Most of the complaining companies are now out of the minimum price agreement and regularly supply Europe from their factories outside of China,¡± stated Safe spokesman Holger Krawinkel.

EU Prosun¡¯s Nitzschke emphasized that the Court¡¯s decision was very clear: ¡°antidumping measures in the EU exist because there is dumping that would otherwise destroy all fair competition and industrial production in Europe.¡±

The European Commision is expected to make a final decision on the expiry review of the antidumping & anti-subsidy measures this week. The Commission will also decide the length of time for which it will extend the measures. After a simple majority of EU Member States voted against extending antidumping measures by two years, the decision went to a referral committee, where a majority voted instead to extend the antidumping measures by 18 months. The Commission¡¯s original proposal to extend anti-subsidy measures by two years was adopted by the EU member states.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö PV Expo: SolarEdge goes big in Japan with new training and logistics center, expanded staff

The Israeli-headquartered DC power optimizer specialist announces bold new expansion into the Japanese market at PV Expo, Tokyo, including new office and expanded portfolio.

SolarEdge, the Israeli DC optimizer and solar inverter specialist, has announced the opening of a new office, training and logistics center and expanded PV portfolio in Japan as the company looks to step up its exposure to the Japanese solar market.

The expansion plans will include the growth of its Japanese staff base and the addition of new distributors of its DC power optimizers and inverters in Japan¡¯s notoriously competitive inverter market.

Guy Sella, SolarEdge¡¯s CEO and chairman, remarked that by augmenting its local presence, SolarEdge would be able to position itself for growth in the strong Japanese market.

¡°With the Japanese solar energy sector considered to be one of the largest and most advanced PV markets in the world, SolarEdge sees vast potential for our solutions in the country,¡± Sella said. Specifically, SolarEdge¡¯s DC power optimizers, equipped with DC shutdown capabilities, and its flexible inverters that allow for parallel strings of unequal length to be laid out on multiple panel orientations are ideally equipped for the changing demands of the Japanese solar market.

With utility-scale installations set to fall in Japan this year, attention is turning to rooftop opportunities at both residential and commercial scale, as well as the challenges of building on less-than-optimum land that may be shaded and/or sloped.

The SolarEdge SE25K is approved for 200% oversizing to support maximizing module loading on such difficult terrain, which is a problem that Japan is currently wrestling with as land for ground-mounted solar becomes ever scarcer.

SolarEdge is also showcasing its low- and high-voltage inverter solutions at the PV Expo Tokyo show, which began today and runs until Friday, March 3.

First day traffic on the show floor was noticeably slower than in previous years as the industry seemingly reacted to repeated warnings of a market contraction in Japan in 2017. However, optimism was generally in plentiful supply, with those involved in home storage, high efficiency technologies and upstream innovation bullish about the opportunities that still abound in the Japanese solar sector.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©

¡ö Heraeus unveils HeraGlaze coating and three new metallization pastes at PV Expo

The German developer of metallization solutions for solar introduces new ¡°knotless screen¡± frontside silver paste for new solar screen technologies, alongside efficiency boosting pastes. Firm also rolls out its HeraGlaze coating to global audience at the Tokyo PV exhibition.

Heraeus, the German-headquartered specialist in metallization pastes for the solar PV industry, has introduced three new products at the PV Expo 2017 event that began today in Tokyo, Japan.

Additionally, the firm also chose the occasion of the show¡¯s opening day to roll out its HeraGlaze coating, which is a high-purity diffusion barrier coating for enhanced crucible performance in wafer production.

The three new metallization pastes promise higher efficiency gains for various PV cells, including established technologies such as PERC, multi and mono, as well as for emerging cell architectures such as heterojunction (HJT) and organic (OPV) cells.

The SOL9641B has been developed for PERC and improved performance on ultra-low dope emitters (ULDE), promising efficiency gains of up to 0.2%, Heraeus claims. Its SOL570 metallization paste, meanwhile, is a low temperature paste that utilizes silver powder development and organic design to offer improved adhesion on HJT cells and efficiency gains of up to 0.05%.

The third metallization paste, the SOL9641AX/BX, has been developed for zero degree mesh printing screens and boasts a knotless screen that allows finer finger printing, delivering better efficiencies and greater cost advantage, Hereaus says.

¡°This is a new technology, and to leverage it takes a specific design formula, a paste we call X,¡± Weiming Zhang, SVP production innovation at Heraeus told pv magazine. ¡°The benefit is it can enable customers to get a finer line screen opening, the line can be narrower, and because there is no knot, it helps the paste transfer.¡±

Zhang spoke of Heraeus¡¯s continued admiration for the demands on quality that the Japanese market continues to place, which is why the German firm chose the PV Expo event to roll out its new pastes and HeraGlaze coating.

¡°Japan is a leading market in terms of renewable energy consumption, innovation and high efficiency applications,¡± Zhang said. ¡°Demand is always for good quality, and we are proud to have cornered a 60% share of the Japanese PV paste market over the past 12 years.¡±

The HeraGlaze coating, also unveiled today, can increase wafer yield by 4% and cell efficiency by 0.1%. Based on an estimated 50 GW wafer production capacity globally, Heraeus calculates that it can deliver an additional 2 GW per year with HeraGlaze, without increasing actual wafer production capacity.

Effective at the initial solar cell manufacturing process during the production of silicon ingots, HeraGlaze is a slurry coating that acts as a barrier, preventing thermally induced impurities such as iron to transfer from the crucible to the silicon.

¡°HeraGlaze¡­ is our first product beyond solar cell metallization and another R&D landmark, which enables our customers to realize further efficiency gains,¡± said Heraeus Photovoltaics president Andreas Liebheit.

£¨Mar 1,2017 / pv-magazine.com£©