China

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.

Also in the roundup: Preliminary permit for pumped hydro in Nevada, solid-state batteries and a China battery slowdown.

Executive and boardroom moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy finance.

Rocky Mountain Power must respond to a natural disaster while social distancing. Plus, New York is good, but NIMBY about solar.

Analyst Wood Mackenzie expects solar demand to decline but predicts the market will recover, with the prospects for the energy transition remaining intact.

The Carbon Tracker Initiative crunched some numbers and discovered that more than half a trillion dollars worth of coal investments are at serious risk due to the declining cost of renewables.

Many solar factories in China are starting to resume production, suggesting that concerns about supplies of PV components could soon begin to ease. Nevertheless, the temporary standstill will have an impact on the global solar market, as the implementation of some projects will probably be postponed until next year.

The Chinese polysilicon giant’s net income fell nearly 23% year-on-year to $29.5 million in fiscal 2019, even though it posted a 16% year-on-year jump in revenue to $350 million. It expects its polysilicon output to soar in the year ahead, despite the threat posed by the coronavirus outbreak.

No potential investor could be found to take over the thin-film solar business. Insolvency proceedings started a few days ago and the business operations of the CIGS thin-film company were finally halted.

TOPCon cell technology has become one of the two leading next-generation options after mono PERC. But for the n-type architecture to truly become a rival to PERC, high-quality and cost-effective production technologies must become settled.