Swedish thinfilm solar cell manufacturer Midsummer will receive roughly €38 million (US$44 million) worth of financial incentives to build a 50MW factory in Bari, Italy.
Making room for solar installations is one of the industry's greatest challenges in Europe as countries seek to meet their net-zero targets. Edith Hancock explores the ways developers and trade associations are fitting new capacity where they can.
Solar perovskite start-up Evolar has sourced investment from Norwegian renewables investor Magnora as it targets rapid commercialisation of the technology.
Australia-headquartered Greatcell Solar, formerly Dyesol Solar, has appointed administrators after failing to secure further financing to develop its perovskite materials and solar cells to a commercial level.
PV manufacturing capacity expansion announcements in the second quarter of 2018, were slightly higher than the previous quarter, although activity slumped specifically in June, after China’s decision to suddenly cap utility-scale and distributed generation (DG) projects (531 New Deal). But large-scale multi-gigawatt production plans in the first half of the year may have hidden an inevitable slowdown, despite the impact on downstream demand from the 531 New Deal.
We have tracked the annual R&D spending of 12 key publicly listed PV module manufacturers over the last 10 years. We present our new methodology with a broader scope which reveals record levels of investment in solar innovation.
PV manufacturing capacity expansion announcements in the first quarter of 2018 continued to follow the strong trend set in the fourth quarter of 2017. The quarter also represented a revival in thin-film expansion plans as well as the return of PV module assembly outpacing solar cell announcements. Also notable was the return of India and the US as major destinations for new capacity plans.
