Magazine Archive 10-2020

The term “game changer” is vastly overused. But a carbon-neutral China by 2060 must fit the bill as truly changing the global climate change game. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, made the announcement last month, and it will require a considerable acceleration of solar, wind and other zero-emissions technology.

As the Chinese government finalizes its 14th Five Year Plan – set for release in the middle of next year –expectations are high for a new renewables target and annual PV installations of around 45 GW, writes Jesse Pichel of ROTH Capital Partners.

The potential consequences of the unambitious draft Renewable Energies Act (EEG), a bill that was recently proposed by the German federal government, are particularly dire, writes Martin Schachinger of pvXchange. The bill must be met with loud protests to avoid jeopardizing the development urgently needed to attain the country’s modest climate targets. Otherwise, Germany will face the threat of universally dreaded electricity shortages over the coming decade, as well as other completely different catastrophes that will make the current Covid-19 crisis look like a walk in the park.

A new wave of consolidation and some reshuffling is underway among market leaders in the solar EPC space, writes IHS Markit’s Josefin Berg. In 2019, the 30 largest EPC providers globally installed 28 GW of non-residential PV, representing 26% of the total market. This increase from 21% in 2018 stems mainly from a growing concentration in the Chinese PV market, as well as integrator concentration in rapidly growing markets like Spain and Vietnam.

Several manufacturers recently brought average mono PERC cell efficiency to 22.5%, and efficiencies will likely go beyond 22.6% in the second half of this year. This suggests that p-PERC cell efficiency could be brought closer to that of n-type, making it more difficult for n-type cells to compete in the increasingly challenging market. Taking costs and market conditions into account, most manufacturers have slowed their capacity expansion plans, leading to a gap between actual output and production capacity. PV InfoLink’s Wells Wang sheds some light on n-type trends in 2020.

Within this decade, the capacity of solar systems on rooftops in Australia will likely exceed the generating capacity of coal. It is now evident that solar in conjunction with other customer-side technologies of batteries and demand management will become the dominant factor in the evolution of Australia’s energy system, writes Tristan Edis, the director of analysis for Green Energy Markets. He adds one caveat, however: For this to occur, batteries must become cost competitive.

Southeast Asia, when taken as a whole, is a global laggard in the uptake of renewable energy, but some countries are leading the way, such as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Myanmar. And as ‘Angry Clean Energy Guy’ Assaad W. Razzouk argues, policymakers in the region cannot hold back the tide of solar and wind for much longer.

Earlier this year, Singapore surpassed its 2020 target for 350 MW of installed PV, and has set itself a more ambitious goal of 2 GW for the coming decade. pv magazine recently spoke with Thomas Reindl, deputy CEO of the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) – and also the lead author of a 2020 update to the institute’s PV Roadmap for Singapore report – to catch up on the latest developments in the city-state’s PV market.

While solar trade shows around the world have been canceled in 2020 due to the global pandemic, pv magazine is bringing the informative content, discussions, and networking opportunities directly into your living room – no long walks through hall floors required. Join our editorial staff and a range of industry experts on Nov. 17, 2020, to gain insights and knowledge on the subjects that matter most in today’s thriving U.S. solar+storage market.