Morning Brief: 8minute Solar adds 3 GW of large-scale solar projects to the pipeline, Total wins projects in France
Also in the brief: California regulators will include avoided transmission costs to the valuation of distributed energy resources, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has signed two power contracts, Philadelphia has reopened its Solarize Philly program and more.
SunPower pauses its solar cell and module factories, reduces salaries and workweek
The solar efficiency leader remains on track to complete its planned split into two independently focused pure-play solar companies by the end of the second quarter.
Cooling down PV panels with water
France’s Sunbooster has developed a technology to cool down solar modules when the ambient temperature exceeds 25 C. The solution features a set of pipes that spread a thin film of water onto the glass surface of the panels in rooftop PV systems and ground-mounted plants. The cooling systems collect the water from rainwater tanks and then recycle, filter and store it again. The company claims the technology can facilitate an annual increase in power generation of between 8% and 12%.
Morning Brief: China labor is returning, expected to be at 70% in March and over 90% in April
Also in the brief: The coronavirus response reduced electricity demand in every country across Europe last week
Morning Brief: Reporting from Shanghai on implications of the outbreak on the solar supply chain
Also in the brief: Enphase ships storage; homeless encampments using secondhand solar; big batteries.
Morning brief: Blackstone buys energy storage developer, Spruce solar acquisition spree continues, PV on schools
Also in the brief: Why has the number of K-12 schools powered by solar doubled in just three years? $89M energy storage pilot starts work in France, plus — a mighty wind.
Oil giant Total increases stake in solar efficiency leader SunPower
Total will be acquiring 676,000 shares worth about $31 million, according to SEC filings.
Job moves: Engie fires CEO, plus Enphase, Sunrun, Sol Systems, Nautilus, Sage Energy
Executive and boardroom moves in solar, storage, project development, cleantech, utilities and venture capital.
French solar institute and Enel announce 24.63% efficiency for heterojunction solar cell
The efficiency of the cell, made with a standard M2 wafer, was raised 0.7% by using an improved busbar-free screen printing metallization based on heterojunction processes developed with manufacturing equipment provided by Swiss specialist Meyer Burger.
Your guide to solar market growth in the global ‘gigawatt club’
Some 15 countries are able to lay claim to the status of being members of solar’s “gigawatt club” in 2019, according to projections from BloombergNEF. To kick off 2020, pv magazine’s global team of correspondents and editors have highlighted 10 fast-growing solar markets to evaluate where the opportunities, and potential risks, lie.
