China

The Chinese PV maker has completed its merger transaction and will now become a private company. Trading of Trina’s shares on the NYSE have been suspended pending de-listing.

The company’s ENERGi systems will be used to enable more than 1 GW expansion of high-efficiency n-type mono cell capacity for an un-named customer in China, a big boost for the technology.

A preliminary finding by the U.S. Department of Commerce could lower import duties first imposed on Taiwan solar cell manufacturers in 2014 from high double-digits to single digits, while tariffs on Chinese module and cell manufacturers imposed at the same time remain in place.

Brookfield has agreed to acquire a 51% stake in yieldco TerraForm Power and plans to become the company’s sponsor, as well as acquiring TerraForm Global outright.

The panel manufacturer, which operates a production facility in Oregon hopes the president’s call for strict enforcement of U.S. trade laws will give it, as well as other domestic panel companies, a better chance against Chinese competition.

The U.S. solar maker and two Chinese companies are planning to build out the massive factory in Eastern China, making good on the promise to transition to the lower-cost P-Series.

The move is a step toward regaining regulatory compliance, in advance of a potential purchase by Brookfield.

The PV Market Alliance has released its official solar installation figures for 2016, which show a 50% growth from 2015 with a total of 75 GW installed. This was mainly driven by a mammoth year of installations in China, although the future would seem less auspicious as the two biggest markets show signs of retraction.

While much of this decline is due to lower system costs, it was a difficult year for the solar industry despite a 20% growth in installation capacity.

A new report examines China’s clean energy investments, which go well beyond its borders, as well as its increasing dominance of PV production and lithium ion processing.