The International Economic Platform for Renewable Energies (IWR, Münster, Germany) reports that on June 16th, 2013 wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) generation peaked at over 60% of German electricity output, a new record. Read more...

The global solar PV industry is on the cusp of one of its greatest changes. In a development that has divided the industry, the European Union will make a preliminary decision by June 6th 2013 on whether or not to impose tariffs on imports of Chinese PV cells and modules. In September 2013, the EU will issue a preliminary anti-subsidy ruling on these imports. The imposition of duties at the expected level, which is an average of 47% for anti-dumping alone, will doubtless have tremendous impacts up and down the value chain both in the EU and globally. But what exactly will those impacts be? Are tariffs fair? Are they necessary? And how did we get here? These are the issues that Solar Server will explore in our review of the solar trade war. Read more...

Solar Server: Can you give a brief overview of what happened at the Massachusetts DOER meeting on July 7th? Dan Berwick: There were two things: they put out a straw man for the regulation that will expand the program from 400 MW to 1200 MW, but they also intervened in what was a rush on the current 400 MW program. Many months ago DOER announced the intention to create a more robust qualification process for projects in the existing 400 MW program, but in the run-up to when that more robust qualification process got implemented, everyone with a project in the queue rushed to get their project in under the current lower standards for qualification to generate SRECs. Which is a very rational thing to do, to apply under the more lax standards before the tighter standards are implemented. Read more...

258,000 mirrors comprise the core of the largest operational concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in the world, providing heat for 100 MW of solar generation, coupled with 50 MW of natural gas generation. But perhaps more important than this record size is its presence here, in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE), as the first large solar plant of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. For these reasons, Solar Server brings you the Shams 1 Solar Energy Center as our April 2013 Solar Energy System of the Month. Read more...

Before examining the reasons surrounding India’s solar manufacturing anti-dumping investigation, one overarching point must be made clear: India needs power. It is estimated that there are roughly 400 million Indians without access to power – roughly a third of the country, according to World Bank. India has the largest population without power of any country, even after the government had committed to provide power to all Indians by 2012 as part of their “power for all” pledge. The people and businesses that do have power face acute power shortages – about 9 percent power deficit and about 10 percent peak power shortage. A few months ago India faced one of the largest blackouts ever, when 600 million people were out of power for several days due in large part to insufficient power generation. Read more...

SAINT-GOBAIN SOLAR SOLUTIONS are intelligent, innovative and instant solutions for solar module manufacturing, offer cost-effectiveness, easy application and durability for perimeter sealing of the PV laminate to the aluminium frame and can be used as a process aid in securing and sealing all module components Read more...