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According to Mercom India, the Indian solar PV industry has recorded its strongest quarter since the launch of the National Solar Mission. In addition to declining module prices, both rooftop and utility-scale installations saw strong growth. Clarity is needed, however, on the ongoing safeguard duty saga, to drive the industry forward.

Despite recent developments in China, the European solar association believes global newly installed PV capacity this year will reach 102 GW, only 5 GW lower than its previous guidance.

With Palestinian developers keeping a low-profile since the advent of the Trump administration, Chinese government money is funding PV projects to support electricity supplies in the disputed nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

Renewable energy has made great strides in electricity generation but the integration of renewables in the heating, cooling and transport sectors is still in its infancy. With those sectors making up around two thirds of global energy demand, there is still enormous potential to harness PV and other technologies.

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.

Swedish power distributor Göteborg Energi is planning to deploy two PV plants totaling 6 MW while initiatives for solar parks above 1 MW are being implemented in several regions.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance says EVs will make up 44% of all new vehicle sales in Europe by 2030, 41% in China, 34% in the US and 17% in Japan. India trails with only 7% forecast. Buses, globally, will go electric at great pace.

PV in India: The seemingly serene solar journey that India was on has hit stormy waters in recent months as issues regarding tariff duties, domestic content and financial backing have served to shake confidence in the industry. But there still exists fantastic potential across the nation for PV to really embed itself as India’s favored power source, provided it can address these three key questions.

According to a tracking report from five international agencies, the world is lagging behind its sustainable development goals for the period 2015-2030, although significant progress has been made in reducing electrification deficit in the least developed countries, and industrial energy efficiency. Off-grid solar solutions, meanwhile, are emerging as one of the key drivers of rural energy access.

387 MW of community solar projects were installed in the United States last year. This brings the cumulative total to 734 MW, with the majority in Minnesota and Massachusetts.