Manufacturing

Sales revenue declined at the start of the year despite steady inverter shipments. The reverse was mainly due to sluggish project business and SMA is predicting significant increases in sales and earnings in the second half.

The Israeli power electronics maker’s revenues and shipments keep rising as it absorbs more companies, but the pending increase in Section 301 tariffs in the United States leaves some clouds in the future.

Analyst Globaldata says falling system prices, and the need for more resilient grids and favorable policies, continue to fire the energy storage industry around the globe and the Asia-Pacific region is likely to remain the biggest market.

California utility PG&E has tested levels of residential solar power up to 100% penetration, and how to mitigate the effects of voltage and thermal overload via smart inverters and traditional transformer and circuit upgrades — with smart inverters shown to allow for up to 100% penetration at cost-effective pricing.

The EV, energy storage and solar company deployed only 47 MW of solar during Q1, as Tesla moves away from traditional sales methods towards web-based sales for its products.

Chinese tracker supplier Arctech Solar has topped the rankings in the Asia Pacific region and risen to fourth in global PV market share among tracker suppliers in 2018 – on the back of its Australian project wins. Arctech noted the achievement today, pointing to Wood Mackenzie Power and Renewables’ 2019 tracker market report.

The PV solutions division of DuPont Electronics and Imaging has revealed plans to work with the Fraunhofer ISE on optimizing testing protocols for crystalline silicon solar modules.

Solar could meet approximately 68% of global energy demand with other renewables making up the rest, according to a new report. A 100% renewable energy system could also create 22 million solar jobs by 2050, the study claims. Keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees C, though, would require FITs for projects up to 40 MW in capacity, auctions for bigger systems, removing fossil fuel and nuclear subsidies and providing more education and R&D and less red tape.

Significant progress has been reported on the feasibility study which aims to progress the establishment of a 15 GWh lithium-ion battery factory in Townsville. The study is conducted by the Imperium3 Townsville consortium.

Hanergy displayed the newest rendition of its 18.7% Thin Film Flat SOLARtile in Australia last week as it gears up for the U.S. and global product launch later in 2019.