Israel

SolarEdge has reported record revenue in its latest three-month update and expects to have even more business in the second quarter, even if gross margin and profit has declined.

StoreDot is opening the facility with the hope that the additional research and development capacity will allow the company to commercialize its battery products by 2024.

Full-year revenues nudged up despite tough comparisons with the end of 2019 for the final quarter of last year. The inverter maker expects to log revenues of $385-405 million in the current three-month window.

Despite the pandemic, residential solar growth continues. Commercial solar, always the problem child, is having trouble coping with the virus.

SolarEdge was able to keep its streak of profitable quarters going — in what was expected to be a hard-hit quarter for solar. The company sees “signs of recovery in the U.S.”

Also in the brief: As much as $600 billion could be invested in new solar generation between 2021 and 2025 worldwide, Duke Energy is set to construct the company’s first-ever solar facility on a retired landfill site and more.

Across the industry, organizers are scrambling to find new ways for virtual trade shows to replicate the live networking and business building these events provide — and keep attendees engaged. We speak with the organizers of the trade show once known as SPI, as well as the folks at lntersolar and the event people at SolarEdge.

A German-Israeli research group has gathered to discuss which storage technologies may outperform lithium-ion batteries in the future. They concluded that there is no such a thing as a “post Li‐ion” era in sight. They recommended a “side‐by‐side” approach for multiple technologies in different applications, as well as the hybridization of technologies.

Even though the U.S. market is showing some signs of stabilizing, the decline in installation rates in April alone was 33%.

The Israeli government wants a 300-megawatt solar plant linked to large-scale storage in the Negev desert. Construction is planned for late 2021 and completion in 2023.