China

If China could travel back to the 1960s with its 2016 PV generation capacity it could harvest an additional 14 TWh of solar power, according to a study by academics at universities in Switzerland and the Netherlands. With a mixed record for reducing pollution, the country’s solar fleet output appears to be drastically affected by dimmed solar radiation.

India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has determined that flat steel products coated with aluminium and zinc are being dumped by manufacturers in China at dumping margins of 30-50%, South Korea (20-30%) and Vietnam (10-20%). It has proposed anti-dumping duty based on the same to offset material injury to domestic manufacturers.

With India losing major solar markets to stiffer competition from cheaper products, it’s high time to change the game by playing on quality and innovation—according to Vikram Solar Chief Financial Officer Rajendra Kumar Parakh, who spoke to pv magazine on the challenge of shrinking markets before Indian solar manufacturers.

Citing the risk to solar projects, lobby group the National Solar Energy Federation Of India has asked the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to exclude flat steel products coated with alloy of aluminum and zinc from anti-dumping duty.

Though electric vehicles are up to 67% less emissions intensive than gasoline cars, their competitiveness depends on many factors like the source of electricity used for vehicle and battery manufacturing and charging. Given that India still has a high share of coal or other fossil fuels in its power mix, electrifying the current car taxi fleet would help it cut emissions faster than incentivising the use of privately owned EVs because of the taxis’ greater utilisation in terms of miles travelled.

The world’s number one mono silicon module manufacturer will add another 5 GW to its annual panel production capacity in 2020 as it pursues 16 GW of output this year and 25 GW next year.

The global energy storage market is poised to grow rapidly in the coming years, with Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) predicting $620 billion in investment over the next two decades will push cumulative global installations to 942 GW/2,857 GWh by 2040. Declining lithium-ion battery costs are driving much of this growth, with BNEF expecting the cost of utility-scale storage systems to fall roughly 52% through 2030, following an approximate 80% slide in the average price of lithium-ion battery packs in the first seven years of the current decade.

Federal trade authorities in the U.S. have ruled bifacial solar modules will no longer be subject to the Section 201 ruling which applies a 25% tariff to solar panel imports.

Having acted against Turkey, the Trump administration has removed India too from the list of nations exempt from import tariffs on solar cells and modules.

While the world’s biggest solar manufacturers are confident there are plenty of alternative markets for a rising volume of panel exports, the message spelled out by first-quarter shipment figures is that protectionism works.