South Korea

The world had more than half a terawatt of PV generation capacity at the end of last year as emerging solar markets picked up the slack caused by Beijing’s subsidy about-turn to the tune of a 20% rise in installations outside China.

The transition for utility scale storage from offering short duration, high value grid services to the world of long duration energy peaking could spell the end of fossil fuel backup generation within five years.

In the latest tariff spat to afflict the solar world, India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies will investigate a claim steel products coated with aluminum and zinc are being dumped by Far Eastern manufacturers.

The South Korean solar module maker has filed another claim with the Federal Court of Australia against Norwegian solar manufacturer REC Group, as well as PV distributors BayWa r.e. Solar Systems and Sol Distribution, for distributing products that allegedly infringe on its patents.

The Korean government is planning to introduce new rules for carbon footprint certification, minimum efficiency levels and industrial standards for solar and wind energy. The measures are intended to make the domestic renewable energy industry grow while securing sustainable competitiveness, the administration said.

The Chinese monocrystalline module maker said it had not been notified of the legal action by its Korean rival. Longi claimed there is considerable uncertainty over the validity of the patents at the root of the lawsuits, which the Chinese defendant says relate to ALD technology. Longi says it uses PECVD technology for cell production.

The Chinese module maker “categorically refutes” allegations made by its rival that it is using Hanwha’s passivation technology on its solar cells. Jinko added, it does not expect any disruption to normal operations as a result of the lawsuit.

The U.S. wafer maker and the Korean module manufacturer expect to ramp the Malaysian factory no later than September. The fab is next to Hanwha’s existing cell and module facilities and 1366 Technologies plans to produce its Direct Wafers on a gigawatt scale for less than $0.20 per piece.

Following a petition by domestic PV panel manufacturers, India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies has recommended the imposition of duties ranging from $537-1,559/metric ton on solar ethylene vinyl acetate sheets imported from China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

South Korean manufacturer LG said import tariffs and panel price depreciation led to lower profit for its B2B division. Japanese electronics company Kyocera saw the revenue of its Life & Environment Group fall by 26%, year-on-year, in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.