Shipment volumes are growing in the global solar tracker market as innovation in project development drives demand. Joe Steveni, of S&P Global Commodity Insights, takes a look at the factors shaping the commercial landscape for trackers, from agrivoltaics and undulating terrain to Indian ambition and the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act.

The quality of solar racking is essential for the structural integrity and longevity of PV projects. Clean Energy Associates colleagues Jörg Althaus and Dutt Du discuss some of the most common defects that can derail tracking system quality and make the case for quality control throughout the supply chain.

Australian PV equipment specialist BT Imaging will supply its advanced photoluminescence imaging tool for solar module maker Emmvee’s 1.5 GW TOPCon cell manufacturing facility in India.

Chinese solar module maker Tongwei has presented a CNY 5 billion ($1.06 billion) offer to acquire rival manufacturer Runergy. If successful, the transaction will be the largest merger and acquisition deal in the PV sector this year.

The Swiss Army knife qualities of lithium-ion batteries have helped scale the technology. Now their ubiquitous nature means they are ideally placed to help electricity system operators balance the grid, argues Gerard Reid, co-founder and partner of Alexa Capital.

As bifacial modules proliferate, estimations of albedo are becoming more important and with developers not prepared to install weather stations to assess solar resource, a popular option has become third-party, on-site measurements over periods as short as a day. Is this an acceptable compromise between costly on-site measuring and less accurate satellite data? Everoze’s Stefan Mau discusses the potential benefits and limitations of this approach.

Longi says it expects a net loss of CNY 4.8 billion ($980 million) for the first half of 2024, while Tongwei is bracing for a CNY 3 billion loss. Aiko Solar and TCL Zhonghuan, meanwhile, are predicting losses of CNY 2.9 billion and CNY 1.4 billion, respectively.

New Zealand generator and retailer Contact Energy has announced plans to build a 100 MW / 200 MWh battery energy storage system on the country’s North Island that will support the development of new renewables including solar generation.

The Queensland government has launched Australia’s first battery supply chain database to help local companies identify business and supply chain opportunities and to support domestic production and connect with potential investors.

Victorian solar company Solar Run has identified Queensland’s “aggressive” renewable energy policies as the driver for the state’s impressive PV installation rates with new analysis showing it leads Australia with more than 54,000 installs.