In preliminary figures compiled by utility-scale PV tracker Wiki-Solar, in excess of 10 GW of new PV power plant capacity will have been added to grids in 2014. Africa and South America are the latest new arrivals as major geographic drivers of the market.

Last week GTM Research released its latest solar-plus-storage market report. Ravi Manghani, senior analyst energy storage at GTM Research spoke to pv magazine about the emerging storage market in the commercial sector both for peak shaving and backup power.

Following a meeting last week of the Japanese Grid Issues Working Group (WG), it appears likely that 17.336 GW of approved FIT PV projects will be cancelled due to insufficient grid capacity. This is the conclusion of Japanese solar consultancy RTS Corporation, which took part in the WG meeting last Wednesday.

PERC technology uptake continues to deliver strong tool orders, with Meyer Burger Technology picking up contracts “in the past few weeks” worth between $12.1m and $15.3m. The orders are for Asian high-efficiency cell producers.

German equipment supplier Schmid has announced the sale of 110 MW worth of equipment, for the production of bifacial cells and modules. Mexican PV producer ERDM made the purchase, to expand its manufacturing capacity to 170 MW in total.

Southern Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, will develop a 131 MW utility scale PV power plant in Georgia. The electricity from the plant will be sold to three Georgia electric corporations under a 25-year PPA.

Swiss PV technology provider Meyer Burger is bullish on the prospect of orders coming from India, in the wake of Prime Minister Modi’s support of solar and domestic manufacturing. Meyer Burger says it sees the 100 GW solar vision of the government delivering “significant scale upstream manufacturing in India.”

Worldwide PV equipment billings have fallen in Q3 2014, decreasing to $264 million, a fall over 17% quarter-on-quarter. Bookings also fell to $157 million, 33% below Q2, with the book-to-bill ratio remaining below parity.

Hanergy Thin Film Power Group announced today that it intends to add 300 MW in flexible CIGS manufacturing capacity in Changde City, Hunan Province. The company has not announced which of its fleet of acquired CIGS technologies will be produced at the facility.

The United Nation’s Green Climate Fund has drawn some criticism from senior German Green, but a largely positive reponse from solar associations and Fraunhofer ISE head Eicke Weber.