North America

With 11 GW, India is set to become the second largest solar PV market in 2018, usurping the U.S., as global demand reaches 113 GW, says IHS Markit. It adds that Q4 will be the biggest quarter in history for installations, with 34 GW expected.

The group of scientists has identified a new process by which holes get trapped in nanoparticles made of zinc oxide.

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and Ford has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to co-develop electric vehicles for India and emerging markets. To support Mahindra’s EV roadmap, the company had signed an agreement with LG Chem for its lithium-ion batteries.

World’s second-largest EPC, a Mumbai-headquartered company will base their U.S. operations in Arizona. It launches with a 50 MW portfolio as EPC and/or co-development service provider.

Researchers in the U.S. have confirmed the existence of a novel state of the element manganese, first proposed in a journal dating from 1928, which could allow for the development of low-cost, high performance batteries for grid level, and other energy storage applications.

50 projects will be signed on March 11, 2018 during ISA Solar Summit, and 71 will be signed on April 20, 2018 at RE-Invest summit. Now, with five new countries, Madagascar, Gabon, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and Uganda, the number of nations to have ratified the International Solar Alliance (ISA) framework agreement has reached 26.

With the current World Trade Organizations (WTO’s) decision, it appears that the solar domestic content dispute between India and the U.S. has stepped forward. Last three-four hearing was just stuck in U.S. rejections of India’s compliance statement.

Investors throughout the world made 406 investments in large-scale renewables in 2017, collectively valued at roughly €40.1 billion (US$49.5 billion), but solar is set to grow more in terms of capacity than any other clean-energy technology over the next half-decade, according to a new report. Battery storage will play a crucial role in this, it found.

A team of scientists from the U.S. University of Rochester has developed a compound which it says could double the effectiveness of redox flow batteries, and ‘transform the energy storage landscape’.

U.S.-based Rockefeller Foundation has partnered with cKers Finance, a New-Delhi based finance company, to help develop the decentralized renewable energy (DRE) sector in India. cKers will invest $50 million across DRE and sustainable energy portfolio in the near term.