Markets

Set to land on Australian shores in Dec. 2022, German solar panel manufacturer AE Solar has modified a panel to meet the continent’s particular stress factors, including our far higher temperatures, UV doses and humidity. “Since we think it’s a kind of localised, or environmentally adapted module, we think it can be a selling factor for this particular line,” AE Solar’s Head of R&D, Dr Hamed Hanifi, told pv magazine Australia during Melbourne’s All Energy conference last week.

The Malaysian authorities have revealed that they will extend power purchase agreements from the fourth LSS4 tender for large-scale PV from 21 to 25 years.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published its “World Energy Outlook 2022” report. It expects the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to accelerate the global energy transition.

A new study has calculated that the globalised PV module supply chain has saved billions for PV installers in Germany, the US and China. It also found that if strong nationalistic policies that limit the free flow of talent and capital were implemented going forward, solar panel costs would be 20-25% higher by 2030.

The Vietnamese government has been working on a scheme to allow bilateral power purchase agreements (PPAs) since 2020. The start of the pilot scheme has been delayed and is now expected for the first quarter of 2023. The official program would launch in 2025.

A looming energy storage shortfall has promoted renewed calls from the renewable energy industry for a national renewable energy storage scheme. The scheme would consist of a series of large-scale project tenders designed to unleash desperately needed investment.

The Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory revealed that most of the planned new solar cell production capacity relates to high-efficiency n-type cell technologies such as TOPCon and HJT.

The International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (IEA PVPS) estimates that 173.5 GW of new solar capacity was installed in 2021, and that figure might rise to 260 GW in 2022. pv magazine spoke with the co-chair of the European Solar Manufacturing Council to look into the figures.

The Victorian government has announced an ambitious target to reach 95% renewables by 2035, to end the state’s reliance on coal generation, and to establish a publicly owned corporation that will see the state hold a controlling stake in new renewable energy projects.

The Western Australian government has allocated six companies land in the state’s mid-west to develop green hydrogen projects, including Fortescue Future Industries and BP.