World

The world had more than half a terawatt of PV generation capacity at the end of last year as emerging solar markets picked up the slack caused by Beijing’s subsidy about-turn to the tune of a 20% rise in installations outside China.

All-electric buses will cost the same as diesel options by 2030 – and possibly earlier – according to research into the global EV market which highlighted the potential for India to follow China’s lead in the sector.

The transition for utility scale storage from offering short duration, high value grid services to the world of long duration energy peaking could spell the end of fossil fuel backup generation within five years.

This revived growth comes mainly from markets outside of China, which are forecast to rise by 43% in 2019.  While China will grow marginally by 2%, Europe will add over 7 GW with utility-scale installations in Spain alone contributing 60% of the growth in the region. The USA will overtake India to once again become the second-largest PV market.

Recent years have seen plenty of innovation when it comes to cell interconnection, and the tricks that manufacturers employ to boost output at this stage go well beyond simply adding more busbars, as in many new module concepts, these are forgone entirely. Synergies between cell interconnection and new innovations at other stages will also be key in shaping the modules of the future.

The Chinese manufacturer’s PV module shipments increased 16% to touch 11.4 GW in 2018, making it the top global supplier with market share of 12.8%.

The benchmark levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for lithium-ion batteries has fallen to $187 per kilowatt-hour since the first half of 2018. The overwhelming cost improvement is making batteries paired with solar or wind projects challenge coal- and gas-fired generation for grid stability, according to BloombergNEF (BNEF).

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.

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.