Global energy consumption in 2018 grew by 2.3%. Electricity demand rose by 4%, nearly twice as fast as overall energy demand. China accounted for over 40% of the growth in renewable-based electricity generation, followed by Europe (25%). The United States and India together contributed another 13%.

Global solar PV tracker shipments exceeded 20 GW for the first time in 2018, with NEXTracker leading the market. While the Americas accounted for more than half of global PV tracker demand, the growth rate was strongest in the Middle East and North Africa.

Suzlon Energy sold to CLP Wind Farms its majority stakes in SE Solar and Gale Solarfarms for Rs 76.55 crore and Rs 22.54 crore, respectively. It had set up these subsidiaries, in partnership with CLP India, for a 100 MW solar project in Telangana and a 50 MW project in Maharashtra.

Finnish clean-energy company Fortum has achieved the Lithium-ion battery recycling rate of over 80%—as against the current 50%—with a low-CO2 hydrometallurgical recycling process.

To enhance the effectiveness of settlement mechanism, the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) has asked the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) to allow aggregation of generation schedule based on independent power producer or quality coordinating agency and considering the same for calculation of deviation. Removal of the rescheduling charges and dual payment mechanism are among other changes sought.

While these electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities will mainly come up at CNG and petrol pumps, 33 are planned for Metro Stations as well, in addition to one each in the parking area at Indira Gandhi International Airport and Jamia Millia. These are likely to become operational within three months.

The independent solar power producer commissioned over 250 MW in the current quarter alone, which is among the highest installations by a company in this period. With this, its total operational portfolio in India is now over 1,400 MW.

Finnish clean-energy company Fortum, in cooperation with US-based inductive charging specialist Momentum Dynamics, will install induction-based infrastructure to allow for wireless charging up to 75 kilowatts.

Mumbai-based Waaree Energies has solar PV module manufacturing capacity of 1.5 GW—claimed to be the largest in India. At a time when the company is expanding to newer markets with customized solar modules for electric vehicles, Sunil Rathi, Director, Waaree Energies spoke to pv magazine about manufacturing in the current duty regime.

The high efficiency series can be used in multiple application scenarios like utility-scale ground-mount and distributed PV projects. An increase in the output of modules from 370W to 415W will help reduce the balance-of-system cost by 4.5% to 8.5%, and reduce levelized cost of electricity (LCoE) by 2.5% to 4.6%.