China

IEA PVPS report: Global solar demand increased by 12% in 2019 compared to 2018 — but that was BC. According to the report, photovoltaics provided just under 3% of global electricity needs in 2019.

Trina Solar has been manufacturing its 500 W modules for a month now and plans to increase module output to more than 600 W in the future.

The ten largest solar tracker companies accounted for 88% of the market last year, according to analyst Wood Mackenzie, with the market growing 20% from 2018.

A 120 MW solar plant located in a fishery near Cixi, in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, was recently completed. The plant, which secured a rate of $0.12/kWh, is the second phase of a 320 MW project owned by Chinese developer Hangzhou Fengling.

Also in the brief: Powerhome has partnered with Generac, Duke Energy is donating $150,000 in low-income bill relief, Seychelles readies the world’s largest salt-water floating solar plant and more.

The patent infringement claim concerns a process for separating photovoltaic strips from silicon solar cells for use in more-efficient tiled or “shingled” solar panels.

Solaria CEO Suvi Sharma. “When foreign companies such as Canadian Solar ignore American patents and violate our core IP, we will take action to enforce and protect the technology that took so much effort and investment to develop.”

The solar plant was built with fixed structures on a 400-hectare water surface at a fishery in Anhui province. The project was the first unsubsidized plant approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2019 and is selling power at a price of $0.054 per kWh.

Also In the brief: Iowa passes net metering right before suspending the session amid the Covid-19 pandemic, an international research team has developed a new type of solar cell that is 26.7% efficient in power conversion, Powerhome is hiring and more.

GCL System Integration plans to build a 60 GW solar module factory in China’s Anhui province, with a total investment of approximately $2.5 billion.