Trump trade announcement offers hope of breakthrough
The president last night announced he is hoping to arrange a meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to bring an end to the long-running trade stand-off between the two nations, provided further progress can be made in negotiations.
pvMB 2/22/19: Walls are up at LG’s Alabama solar factory, utilities overspend by billions on T&D and more…
Good morning – it’s Friday! In today’s pvMB we will also bring you more regulatory capture in New Orleans, NREL’s new database for albedo, and a study that looks at the idea locations for EV chargers in Michigan.
First Solar is sitting pretty
The thin film PV maker reported solid year-end 2018 results, with future bookings extending out four years and the fourth of five Series 6 factories already online.
Sungrow surpasses 1 GW of U.S. inverter contracts for 2019
The Chinese inverter maker expects to more than double its U.S. shipments this year – trade war be damned.
pvMB 2/19/2019: 50 MW in Maine, robotic panel cleaning and more!
Its a sunny Tuesday morning and the days are getting longer! Maui Electric is trying to charge ratepayers for curtailed solar electricity, Nissan is using old batteries in campers and Aerospec sees how BIG a solar farm is.
Even with new capacity investments, Enphase still sold out
Enphase says its inverter lead times are ~13-15 weeks, even with dedicated manufacturing lines for components. Two new long term contracts expect to turn on in Q3 and Q4 ’19, lowering lead times to ~6-8 weeks.
REC Silicon to suspend production at Washington State polysilicon factory
REC Silicon has revealed plans to halt operations at its Moses Lake facility in 17 days’ time. The company says it has taken the decision to maintain liquidity for its semiconductor business with American workers set to pay the price for President Trump’s trade war with China.
pvmb 2/8/19: Aurora gets $20 million, U.S. lithium-ion factory planned, California makes interconnection easier, and more!
In today’s pv magazine USA morning brief we also see Hawaii regulators propose performance based incentives for utility HECO, hundreds of laws changed in 2018 regarding the grid, concerns aired before Congress about supply chains for lithium-ion batteries, and more!
SunPower officially producing P-Series at former SolarWorld factory in Oregon
The largest shingled solar cell production facility in the Western Hemisphere at 220 MW, marking the first of a group of massive factories expected to go on-line this year.
On the anniversary of the Section 201 tariffs, Trump talks trade
There are indications that the Trump Administration may be reaching a deal with Chinese authorities, but the trade war goes on.
