World

The Toyota Prius gets rooftop solar, Fraunhofer and Hevel push multicrystalline and HJT efficiencies, Saudi Arabia begins 300 MW tender process and Tesla publishes its Q4 2016 financials – welcome to the week that was.

Along with initiative partners Huawei, sonnen, Suntech, S.A.G, innogy and First Solar, pv magazine will be exhibiting as part of the Integrated Energy Plaza at the 2017 Hannover Messe. The Solar Premium exhibition space will herald solar PV’s arrival as a major energy player at the iconic industrial trade show.

Solar stats from around the world have been rolling into the pv magazine office this week, as analysts continue to predict big things for solar in 2017. Amid these expectations the industry continues to innovate and grow as a major part of the world’s energy supply.

In scoring the sustainable energy policies of 111 countries, the World Bank finds that nations such as Mexico, China, India and Brazil are emerging as leaders in the field, delivering robust policies that support energy access.

Since 2015, our Technology Highlights feature has sought out the latest and greatest technological developments in PV. Now we’re ready to receive entries from across the industry for the 2017 feature, which will be a major highlight of our April edition, and enjoy a large media presence at the SNEC show in Shanghai.

It’s been another typically busy week for solar in 2017. Predictions for the storage market are ballooning, while PV prices are shrinking, policy’s shifting, and ever more players are jumping into the fold.

Data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance reveals total of $834 million steered towards the global clean energy industry last year, marking the third consecutive annual increase.

With record-breaking announcements, job losses, company reshuffles and top-down branding decisions, it’s just another typical week in the fast-paced world of solar PV.

Carbon Tracker and Imperial College London report calls solar power and electric vehicles ‘game changers’ whose potential impact is consistently underestimated by large utilities.

The latest report by Mercom Capital shows that while debt and public market financing for battery storage companies declined in 2016, that battery storage project funds raised $820 million during the year.