In its 2012 Annual Report, the Desertec Industry Initiative (Dii) has acknowledged the challenges it faces in attracting investment to North Africa and the Middle East. It therefore has set out a new focus, which aims to facilitate the integration of the EU and MENA energy markets.

The Western Australian branch of the Australian Green party, the WA Greens, has released its Energy 2029 plan today, which promotes a 100% renewable future for the resource-rich state. As a part of a plan, an inland site has been earmarked for a large CSP project.

Swiss CIGS developer Flisom has closed a third funding round, which will allow it to develop a 15 MW production line, to refine its roll-to-roll CIGS processes.

A Cambridge-based developer of a pay-as-you-go photovoltaic system for sub-Saharan Africa has secured a £1 million (US$1.6 million) “working capital loan” to roll out its systems to 30,000 off-grid households.

The Panasonic Corporation has claimed what it says is a world record for a crystalline silicon-based photovoltaic cell of a “practical size” with an efficiency of 24.7%. Japan’s Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has evaluated the efficiency.

Figures released today from NPD Solarbuzz have shown that cumulative photovoltaic demand from the U.K. market has now hit 2 GW. 2012 saw close to 1 GW of demand.

A new report has found that shipments from Taiwan’s photovoltaic cell industry hit a record high in 2012. Overall, EnergyTrend found that the country’s manufacturers shipped 5.5 GW of cells globally last year.

In another sign that TSMC Solar is achieving rapid efficiency gains, the Taiwanese manufacturer has announced it has achieved 15.1% module efficiency. The module sets a new record for monolithic thin film efficiency, using its CIGS technology.

Countries like Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Brazil are set to see growth in renewables, however thermal energy sources are still going to make up supply shortfalls.

Conergy has announced that it has completed three 500 kW projects in Greece. Conergy was the main contractor on two of the plants and supplied components to the third.