Nearly 2/3 of Americans support a solar mandate for new homes
A new poll by Morning Consult found surprisingly strong support for a California-style mandate across the political spectrum, although Liberals were more likely to favor the measure than Conservatives.
Global solar investment drops due to low project costs, China policy change
While overall global investment in clean energy saw a decrease of just 1% YoY in the first half of 2018, solar’s share dropped 19% following changes to China’s PV policy and lower project costs, says Bloomberg NEF (BNEF). It forecasts this trend to continue throughout the year.
TrendForce: Price war may begin due to overcapacity
The Taiwanese analysts expect that overcapacity will force some solar players to abandon their business or file for bankruptcy. IHS Markit also sees further price declines and consolidation in the third quarter, although it does forecast signs of a speedy recovery.
Solar and storage ethics: a moral dilemma for the renewable age
Heath Frewin, the Head of Distribution at Energy Networks Australia sets out the “growing ethical dilemma” brought on by rising rooftop solar adoption.
New coal doesn’t stack up – just look at Queensland’s renewable energy numbers
As the federal government aims to ink a deal with the states on the National Energy Guarantee in August, it appears still to be negotiating within its own ranks. The ANU’s Mathew Stocks and Andrew Blakers crunch the numbers to assess whether coal or renewables will pay off for costs and jobs in Queensland.
Global PV market to diversify, reach 200 GW a year by 2020
According to a new report from the PV Market Alliance (PVMA), the global solar PV market will only be marginally affected by the recent China policy decisions, and will grow to become an up to 200 GW market by 2022. Diversification will continue, with new segments accounting for up to 25% of the entire market by this time.
Smart Energy Council campaigns against NEG, latest government proposal “spells disaster’
Describing it as the “D-Day for renewables”, the Smart Energy Council is raising funds to campaign against the National Energy Guarantee – as currently proposed by the government. The solar and storage peak body has called for a 45%-by-2030 emissions reductions target as opposed to the current 26%.
BNEF expects 34% fall in PV module prices in 2018
The analyst is expecting carnage throughout the solar value chain as the result of reduced policy support for deployment in China.
California generates more power from solar than gas in May
During May utility-scale solar provided 17% of generation on California’s grid, outpacing gas for the first time on a monthly basis.
China: 2018 installations could drop by more than a third
On Friday, three Chinese government ministries issued a joint “2018 Solar PV Power Generation Notice.” Its impact has been hotly debated since, with two key conclusions: the largest market segment – utility-scale PV – will take a pounding and not come close to last year’s record installation figure of just under 34 GW; and the expanding distributed generation market segment, which rose 360% from 2016 to 2017, will also be severely impacted by a 10 GW cap on new projects.
