While total corporate funding was down in H1 2018, compared to a year earlier, due to lower investment in the Smart Gird and Efficiency categories, battery storage companies recorded an increase of 12%.

The Chinese ingot, wafer cell and module giant has signed a significant sales contract for the shipment of solar PV modules to an unidentified customer in the United States.

While overall global investment in clean energy saw a decrease of just 1% year-over-year in the first half of 2018, solar’s share dropped 19% following changes to China’s PV policy and lower project costs, says Bloomberg New Energy Finance. It forecasts this trend to continue throughout the year.

The Norwegian polysilicon maker has announced that it will today lay off around 100 employees from its Washington plant and reduce production, as a “direct result” of the trade dispute between the United States and China.

BNEF predicts that solar PV capacity will grow 17-fold, and wind six-fold, by 2050, to account for nearly half of global electricity generation. Investments will reach $11.5 trillion. Cost reductions will drive this charge, particularly in the battery market. Despite this, the electricity sector is still failing to bring CO₂ emissions down to the required levels.

The analytics firm is the latest to predict a decline in global PV demand this year and crushed global module prices due to Chinese policy changes. TrendForce also finds that the protectionist moves taken by the U.S. will be weakened by falling module prices.

Wacker Chemie has said it is gradually ramping up production at its beleaguered U.S. polysilicon production site, with product expected to be again available in Q2. The shutdown has affected its Q1 earnings, with sales down 18% compared to a year ago.

According to the latest GTM Research statistics, global inverter shipments increased 23% in 2017, and revenues 11%, thus representing another record year. A market first, three-phase string inverter shipments overtook those of central inverters.

GTM Research says last year’s record levels of global solar tracker shipments will be surpassed in 2018, as Latin America displaces the United States as the largest market and NEXTracker holds on to the top spot.

Taiwan has filed a complaint with the WTO over the Trump Administration’s decision to impose safeguard tariffs of up to 30% on crystalline silicon solar cell and module imports.