Italy

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.

Illegally re-badged panels were sold to Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Turkey and Syria. Italian authorities found 60 tons of panels.

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.

This Swiss giant is following a trend as large multinational high-tech companies see their role as redesigning infrastructure rather than supplying inverters at ever lower margins. Schneider Electric has pulled out of large scale solar, Siemens’ Kaco acquisition and Junelight launch show increasing interest in the C&I and residential markets, and GE is likely to divest its power conversion business due to low profit margins in that sector.

Pope Francis held a closed door meeting at the Academy of Sciences with the CEOs of oil firms and investment firms to address climate change, with a group committing to support an “economically meaningful” carbon price.

A recent article in Bloomberg View illustrates clearly the mythology and misinformation that abounds regarding renewable energy, which in many cases is spread by the media.

The International Energy Agency has released a manual for policy makers on the issues involved in the large scale integration of solar and wind power into power grids.

The U.S. cell manufacturer announced a partnership with Italian manufacturer Coveme to accelerate the development and commercialization of Natcore’s latest cell innovation.

The Swiss power electronics firm will end manufacturing operations at the U.S. site, shifting an undisclosed number of jobs to Estonia and Italy later this year. Some sales and service staff will be retained in Phoenix.