Western Europe

Product development company the Cambridge Design Partnership, working with compatriot solar business Solivus, has developed a curved solar module featuring an organic thin film. The design is based on Solivus’ desire to “create a product so attractive that people would be happy to have one in their garden”.

Led by Indian developer Renew Power’s former CEO Parag Sharma, the joint venture by these global investors aims to install over 4 GW of utility-scale capacity across solar and wind projects.

European research group Solliance says its perovskite modules have passed three key industry standard reliability tests: Light soaking, damp heat and thermal cycling. The group said it is the first time perovskite modules of that size have achieved such results and represents a milestone in the technology’s move toward commercialization.

Following a dip in the last fiscal year, the value of cell exports saw a massive surge to an estimated Rs133,000 lakh from April to November. Exports to the U.S. tripled during the eight-month period as shipments to Turkey and Belgium rebounded to become the next two biggest export markets.

A study from Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology has predicted solar and other renewables can provide a global energy jobs revolution – just as four European operations revealed recent struggles.

The first Indian power plant, with a capacity of 5.5 MWp, was inaugurated in 2017 in the state of Uttarakhand. With the just commissioned photovoltaic power plant of 27 MWp, the developer claims to offer the lowest price of solar electricity in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

The annual global outlook report for solar published by IHS Markit notes there was no real uptick in the amount of new capacity added last year, compared with the returns seen in 2018. That is likely to kill any hope India has of overtaking the U.S. as the world’s second biggest solar market in 2020.

Researchers at the American Institute of Physics have used the clear-sky irradiance model developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to measure the degradation rates of solar panels at a testing field in Germany over five years. The scientists say the model, when combined with real-world data, offers an efficient tool to evaluate the aging of PV technology.

As Germany shuttered another of its nuclear power plants on New Year’s Day, Narendra Modi’s office was said to be considering a proposal which would make coal more competitive with renewables in India.

Spanish researchers have developed an analytical model to optimize the operation of PV water pumping systems. They say simultaneously irrigating different parts of a farm could help minimize costs and maximize energy use. The model was tested on an olive farm divided into four zones in the Spanish province of Almería.