PV modules

The offer was apparently submitted by Saudi energy giant ACWA Power, which refused to confirm the bid when asked by pv magazine. The second lowest bid – $0.0175/kWh – was reportedly submitted by a consortium formed by Emirati developer Masdar, French utility EDF and Chinese PV panel maker Jinko Power.

After emerging as the recipient of most of the Brazilian government’s public allocation of generation capacity, the Canadian-Chinese manufacturer has secured a large share of projects in auctions held by power companies Copel and, probably, Cemig.

The EU’s Joint Research Center has created a comprehensive dataset to characterize the solar energy potential in the bloc’s 28 member states. The data shows even a 100-fold increase from current solar capacity would require a very limited amount of land – a lot less than wind power.

Selected schemes will be eligible for a feed-in premium – related to the wholesale electricity price – for 20 years. The ceiling price for the premium has been set at the equivalent of $0.0089/kWh.

The final average price for power generated by solar systems with a capacity of 100-500 kW came in at €97.48/MWh. The price for 500 kW-8 MW installations was €86.54/MWh. Only the latter category saw a fall in price compared to the previous commercial solar tender.

The Total Solar International PV unit of the French oil giant has started construction of a large scale plant in Osato, in the prefecture of Miyagi, Japan. With its third solar project in Japan, Total will reach 100 MW of installed generation capacity in less than two years.

A massive green hydrogen production project has been unveiled in Western Australia with Siemens on board as technology partner. The location has been touted as Australia’s best for solar and wind power generation potential.

This year will see strong growth for the global PV market, to 114 GW, and that pattern will continue in the years ahead, according to analyst Wood Mackenzie. a report has highlighted soaring inverter replacement costs for PV project owners as a side-effect of the solar success story.

The Spanish manufacturer said the new three-phase device may reach a power output of 160 kWac in a single 75kg unit. The inverter features 1500 Vdc technology and is said to be able to reach a power output of 161 kW (AC) in a single 75kg unit.

Researchers from Canada have unveiled a new germanium deposition process which is said to eliminate threading dislocations and be significantly cheaper than previous approaches. The scientists say their technique creates nanovoids on the surface of the germanium layer which can attract and annihilate undesirable dislocations.