At the recent PV Taiwan event, pv magazine caught up with Lu Zhao, head of PV System Technology Group at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) to discuss the current potential of floating PV applications, and examine how hydropower coupled with floating solar could become a world-leading energy sector.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation will provide $94 million as the sole debt financier of Australia’s first co-developed wind, solar and storage array. The 60 MW Kennedy Energy Park is being developed by Windlab and Eurus Energy and will combine 43.2 MW in wind capacity, 15 MW of solar PV, and 2 MWh of battery storage.

Record crowds have been attracted to this year’s All Energy Australia trade show and conference, currently underway at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. With the country’s rooftop market set to exceed 1 GW in 2017, the battery storage sector burgeoning, and strong growth being shown in the utility scale segment, policy uncertainty prevails beyond 2020.

At last month’s Solar Power International trade show and conference, pv magazine hosted its sixth Quality Rountable event – the second of its kind at SPI. The event raised a number of worrying real-world examples of quality falling short of expectations, but it ended on the hopeful note of quality across the value chain trending upwards.

While it has been slow to gain major traction in manufacturing, Meyer Burger’s SmartWire cell interconnection technology now has a significant reference application, in the form Polish manufacturer Hanplast.

Seeking to answer what is happening with final costs once recycling becomes and issue at PV module end-of-life, backsheet manufacturer Coveme points to the importance of fluorine-free backsheets for the PV industry, as they keep the costs down while being environmentally friendly.

pv magazine provides a brief overview of high-efficiency, high-output solutions presented at Intersolar Europe 2017.

In an interview with at Intersolar Europe 2017, Kaila Haines, Nidec ASI Marketing Director, is tracing the evolution of Europe’s large-scale battery storage market.

FHR Anlagenbau will supply the sputter production tooling for Manz’s Chinese CIGSline factories. The production equipment, which is likely for the landmark deal between Manz, Shanghai Electric, and major Chinese generator Shenhua, which was signed in January, will be delivered in 2018.

German storage provider sonnen has partnered with Australia’s self-styled “largest installer of home energy solutions” Natural Solar to introduce its sonnenFlat concept. In a launch event in Sydney tonight, Natural Solar CEO Chris Williams said that in light of recent utility price hikes in some parts of the country, that there is “very strong interest” in the sonnenFlat from households.