Sharp reductions in market prices combined with the impact of regional and national policies pushed the North American photovoltaic (PV) market to a new quarterly peak with 0.93 GW installed in Q4’11, according to the latest "North American PV Markets Quarterly" report issued by NPD Solarbuzz (San Francisco, California, U.S.). The solar incentive policy mix in both the United States and Canadian markets due to Solarbuzz drove up demand in large-scale ground-mount systems, which was 59% of this total. Regionally, the New Jersey, California, Arizona, and Ontario accounted for two-thirds of Q4’11 demand. Read more...

2011 is being looked back on in the global solar industry for many negative qualities. Primarily, a collapse in profitability in solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing led to companies restructuring, layoffs, plant closures, and even a number of bankruptcies. Late in the year a vicious trade dispute sharply divided the U.S. PV industry, which also saw significant negative press, most notably the fabricated scandal of the Solyndra DOE loan guarantee. However, all of this obscures the fact that global PV, concentrating solar power (CSP) and concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) industries continued to grow in 2011, at some times and in serveral regions dramatically. Read more...

Solar Server: Overall, what are your impressions of Governor Christie's Energy Master Plan for New Jersey? Jamie Hahn: Overall, I feel as though the EMP provides a roadmap for how New Jersey can promote a diverse portfolio of new, clean, cost-effective in-state electric generation. I think it recognizes the role that solar power can play in meeting the state’s RPS objective as well as its role as an engine for economic growth. The jobs, the economic growth and all of these small businesses created by the solar industry are most important. The numbers speak for themselves when looking at the number of jobs created in this sector in one of the worst economic climates of our lifetime. Read more...

It’s almost one year since the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) and rumours are beginning to fly around the UK solar industry as to what the upcoming Comprehensive Consultation on the feed-in tariff (FiT) holds. I decided it was time to investigate what people are actually saying, and to find out how much of what is being said matches the facts around budgets, pricing and deployment. Read more...