The solar PV landscape in 2018 will continue to grow and will continue to be dominated by the same handful of massive markets, albeit a broader geographical spread of installations are expected this year, finds the latest Global Solar Demand Monitor from GTM Research.

The analysts expect cumulative global capacity to grow 6% on last year, reaching 104 GW – topping the 100 GW-mark easily each year through 2022 – but perhaps the most eye-catching projection is the forecast of a 7% decline among the top four solar markets of China, the U.S., India and Japan.

This means that solar installation growth is poised to be far greater in less heralded markets, ushering in a broader geographic diversity for the industry.

GTM’s report forecasts that China will install 48 GW of new PV capacity this year, which – while accounting for 47% of global demand in 2018 – is poised to be below the 53 GW added in 2017. Of this 48 GW figure, more than half is set to be derived from distributed generation (DG) projects, which for the purposes of the report accounts for solar arrays less than 20 MW in size; so still potentially sizeable.

Solar growth in the U.S. and India, meanwhile, will be hampered by trade restrictive measures warns GTM Research solar analyst Rishab Shrestha. “Although the availability of tariff-free modules in the U.S. and the announcement that compensation will be provided to Indian developers negatively impacted by changes to tariffs and duties provides some encouragement,” Shrestha suggested.

The report expects annual PV installations to reach 10.6 GW in the U.S. and a rather conservative 7.1 GW in India. It is a similar picture in Japan, where around 7 GW of new capacity is expected.

By region, Latin America will add 5.6 GW of new PV capacity this year, which represents an annual increase of 61%, the report finds, will the MENA region is forecast to expand by a massive 281%, reaching 4.7 GW of new solar capacity in 2018.

As a result of this growth, by Egypt and Brazil are poised to become GW-scale markets in 2018. Joining this exclusive club are likely to be Spain – which last topped 1 GW of new PV in a single year in 2008 – and France.

New storage data released today by IHS Markit shows a global project pipeline of 10.4 GW by the end of the first quarter, following a 53% increase in installations last year.

IHS Markit’s figures come a week after an inaugural global storage market report by GTM Research, and the two reports display both similarities and differences.

Last week’s GTM Research report found that the industry added 1.4 GW of new storage capacity in 2017, with the U.S. leading the way in installed capacity with a figure of 431 MW.

The data from IHS Markit, meanwhile, suggests that 1.9 GW of new capacity was installed in 2017, with South Korea overtaking the U.S. as the largest storage market globally. These two nations, along with Japan, accounted for more than half of 2017’s global storage installations, the analysts found,

This year, IHS Markit expects new capacity to reach 3 GW, drawn from a longer-term project pipeline that stands at 10.4 GW as of March 31.

Further to these numbers, IHS Markit has identified four global trends for the year. These include the growth of collocated solar+storage projects, which will account for around 40% of behind-the-meter (utility scale) storage installations in 2018; behind-the-meter (residential and C&I) installations to grow and to account for more than half of new storage capacity from 2023; battery-backed storage to continue challenging gas-fired peaker plants in meeting the capacity needs in California and thus ushering in significant battery growth in the state, and new energy storage deployment targets in many markets driving greater integration and adoption of the technology.

“The global battery energy storage market gained significant momentum in early 2018,” said IHS Markit. “Emerging business models, such as gas-peaker replacement and renewable firming, have been successfully demonstrated, leading to a strong uptick in the global pipeline.”

The first quarter in particular was highly active, and built on encouraging policy developments that presage a bright future for the sector. Such developments have included, in the U.S. the FERC Order No. 841 that will remove key barrier to storage in numerous wholesale markets nationwide; a 1.5 GW storage target in New York State, and the launch in Austria of a federal subsidy program for small-scale solar plus storage – a policy loosely mirrored in several German states.

Cumulative global energy storage additions reached 1.4 GW and 2.3 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in 2017, according to new data published in GTM Research’s inaugural Global Energy Storage – 2017 Year in Review and 2018-2022 Outlook report.

Australia added more energy storage capacity by watt than any other nation last year, with 246 MW. This total comprised a tripling of the country’s residential (behind-the-meter) storage space, which continues to be boosted by high retail electricity rates and diminishing or expiring solar FITs, thereby boosting the uptake of home batteries for self-consumption purposes.

In the United States, meanwhile, the 431 MWh of new storage was the largest amount by energy rating globally, with the first quarter (Q1) of 2017 accounting for 234 MWh of storage deployments. The GTM report states that the bulk of this Q1 activity occurred in California where the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) stepped up its efforts to procure additional power in the wake of the Aliso Canyon facility’s shutdown.

The remaining three quarters in the U.S. were shaped by gathering storage momentum in a handful of states that enacted new laws and targets designed to increase the uptake of storage. Arizona, New York and Massachusetts were all active in this space, while California comprised 73% of the 110 MWh of new behind-the-meter battery installations registered nationwide in 2017.

Europe eyes regulation

The leading storage markets in Europe were the U.K. and Germany – the former installing 117 MW of largely large-scale storage capacity, and the latter’s 135 MW comprising mostly front-of-meter storage but a growing portion of residential and commercial applications too.

In the U.K., the highly competitive Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) auction drove clearing prices to record lows of £7/MWh ($9.9/MWh) for electricity, prompting the National Grid to initiate a process of restructuring for ancillary services ahead of a (duly canceled) EFR Part 2 auction. In its stead is set to come a more simplified frequency market system designed to be more transparent and place more value on speed of response technologies, which could play into storage’s hands.

However, despite the U.K. government’s eagerness to support technologies that will help the National Grid expedite the shift away from coal-fired power plants (resulting in a number of positive policy announcements that will certainly boost battery uptake), the business case for storage has begun to suffer. GTM Research finds that embedded benefits of storage will be drastically scaled back from an average forecast of between £47k/MW/year to £70k/MW/year ($66k/MW/year to $99k/MW/year), down to £3k to £7k/MW/year ($4.2k/MW/year to $9.9k/MW/year) by April 2021.

Currently, of the 3 GW of proposed U.K. storage projects that have made it through the prequalification process for capacity market auctions, GTM Research finds that only around 400 MW have secured contracts, leaving a glut of uncontracted storage projects across the country.

In Germany, the solar+storage residential program, the KfW 275, continues to grow. Last year, Germany had around 80,000 behind-the-meter storage installations, predominately in the residential sector. Elsewhere in Europe, it is the residential segment that is driving most growth, with many major solar companies now including storage in their offerings to customers in order to capitalize on the continent’s increasingly decentralizing energy market.

The Asian picture

South Korea’s self-contained storage market is ticking along nicely, GTM found. The nation is closing in on its 500 MW target, having ended 2017 with 370 MW of storage installed across 13 projects, all built using domestic components and owned and operated by state transmission company Kepco.

China, meanwhile, is gathering pace in the storage space and will surpass all markets bar the U.S. by 2019, remaining in second place through to 2022.

Globally, the storage industry will continue to be shaped by continuous refinement of policy and market mechanisms designed to encourage battery uptake on several fronts. These include renewable integration, time-of-day based PPA structures, competitive market redesigns, retail rate reforms, urban and remote microgrids, and distributed resources for grid services and as virtual power plants.

Such initiatives, allied to continued cost reductions of lithium ion technology, will boost installation numbers to 8.6 GW and 21.6 GWh by 2022, the report concludes.

The U.S. government yesterday rejected a request by the European Union (EU) to exempt European solar imports into the U.S. from the harshest tariffs.

In a joint filing to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the EU’s assertion that the higher prices and lower volumes of its solar goods were “not causing any serious injury” to the U.S., and thus should not be penalized as severely, was dismissed by Washington.

The EU had asked that its crystalline silicon solar imports be instead subjected to a Minimum Import Price (MIP) or quota allocation by country, but such suggestions also fell on deaf ears, leaving the two trading blocks at an impasse.

There has been no further agreement on the appropriate form of compensation, meaning that the tariff measures first outlined under Section 201 will apply to EU-produced components. Both the U.S. and the EU did stress in the WTO filing, however, that they will “agree to monitor the impact of the measures on the trade flows and continue these discussions”.

President Donald Trump imposed a unilateral trade tariff of 30% on solar panels in January as part of his America First agenda that seeks to erect protectionist measures against the perceived threat of foreign competition.

The WTO permits such tariffs – officially called safeguard tariffs – when a country can prove it is facing a sudden and potentially injurious wave of imports of a particular product, in this case solar modules largely from China.

The safeguard tariffs do contain some caveats, however, chiefly that countries on the receiving end of such measures should be compensated for in other trade areas. One other retaliatory measure allowed is for such countries to impose their own trade barriers on the U.S. Taiwan is expected to take this option.

Following the introduction of the Section 201 tariffs, the EU, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia all began proceedings to extract some form of compensation from the U.S. According to the WTO filing seen by pv magazine, representatives of the U.S. and the EU met on February 15 to examine this issue, but no agreement was reached, thus resulting in yesterday’s announcement.

While Trump’s decision to impose safeguard tariffs won him some backers in the U.S., the solar industry has complained that once again roadblocks were being erected in the path of solar’s growth. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) calculated in February that the tariffs could lead to 23,000 fewer jobs than its base case over the next four years.

The effects are already being felt: in late February SunPower announced that 150 – 250 staff would be losing their jobs, laying the blame on Section 201.

A new report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has revealed that the world is adding more energy storage capacity than ever – but reliance on policy support is delivering patchy growth.

Global installations of energy storage reached 1.17 GW in 2017, which is a 4.6% increase on 2016. However, 2016 posted growth of 61% against 2015, meaning sector expansion has slowed dramatically in the space of the past 12 months.

BNEF still expects sixfold growth in the sector by 2030, but warns that the industry “still needs training wheels” as it steadies itself across a global scale.

“[Storage] is currently a fragile market, reliant on policy support in most countries – and this makes growth patchy,” said BNEF’s head of storage analysis, Logan Goldie-Scott.

As increasing amounts of intermittent renewable electricity generation sources, such as wind and solar power are added to global grids, the importance of battery storage as a reliable and responsive means for storing this energy grows.

However, in many countries storage technology is still reliant on subsidy and often-erratic government support. The average price of a battery pack remains prohibitively expensive for many would-be distributed generation consumers, despite costs falling by 24% to $209/kWh last year.

This brings storage technology costs closer in line with other grid resources, the BNEF report said, but adoption rates at scale continue to suffer from disjointed strategies to support and integrate such technology more effectively.

The leading storage nation in 2017 was South Korea, which installed 406 MW of capacity – more than any other nation. According to BNEF, South Korea’s policies “support adoption of batteries by offering incentives such as discounts on electricity rates for C&I customers who deploy systems”.

Last year was described as a transitional one for the U.S., as the nation’s utilities and regulators remained divided over how best to integrate, adopt and support storage technology, Goldie-Scott said. Across the Americas, which includes both North and South America, 522 MW of storage capacity was added, which was 3% less than the capacities added in 2016.

The EMEA region grew slightly, the data shows. In the U.K. recently there has been a push to develop new routes to commercialization for battery technology, led by the recently launched Faraday Institution, while in Sweden, Northvolt’s proposed battery cell gigafactory is targeting 32 GWh of cell production capacity by 2030.

Be sure not to miss this year’s pv magazine Energy Storage Special – a 32-page publication exploring battery technology trends and challenges, European opportunities, end-of-life strategies and a whole lot more. The publication is out now, and will also be distributed at the Energy Storage Europe event in Düsseldorf, Germany, between March 13-15.

California-headquartered microinverter specialist Enphase Energy has announced today a partnership with Japanese electronics giant Panasonic to deliver AC modules that utilize the latest product iterations from both firms.

The new microinverter from Enphase – the IQ 7X – is to be fitted to Panasonic’s 96-cell HIT solar modules and made available to distributors and installers in North America. Such a partnership follows on from existing AC module tie-ups between Enphase and Waaree in India, and global collaborations with LG, JinkoSolar and SolarWorld.

The benefits of AC modules include faster installation times thanks to the simplified architecture, and by embedding the microinverter at the fab stage Enphase also claims that the overall installation quality is higher and at reduced risk of fault. By partnering at the production stage, logistics and overhead costs are also brought down.

According to Panasonic Residential Solar Group manager Mukesh Sethi, the partnership offers a new production solution for the firm, which also recently rolled out its new “all-black” panel – manufactured with a black backsheet – to the U.S. residential market.

These AC modules will be produced using Panasonic’s N Series HIT modules, the company confirmed. “These modules are an ideal partner for the Enphase IQ 7X microinverter,” said Sethi. “With a unique HJT and advanced bifacial cells, these high-efficiency panels offer homeowners state-of-the-art features and maximum solar production.”

A major route to market for AC modules in the U.S. residential space is their inherent compliance with new NEC 2017 safety regulations, specifically rapid shutdown capability. Enphase’s microinverters are equipped with Enphase Envoy, which is a gateway monitoring software that enables instant shutdown of each module if and when required.

Off-the-shelf AC and smart (modules fitted with DC power optimizers) modules are poised to corner a greater share of the PV panel market as safety regulations (such as rapid shutdown) broaden, and costs tighten.

IHS Markit expects such products to account for around 4 GW of global installs by 2020, up from less than 400 MW in 2017. “Growth will be driven by cost efficiencies gained from manufacturing through to the installation, and by sales channels shifting to module suppliers, which will develop more high-volume buyers,” said IHS Markit senior solar analyst Cormac Gilligan in a recent report on AC and smart modules.

The European Union (EU) and China have this week lodged separate filings with the World Trade Organization (WTO) that seek consultation with the United States over the imposition in January of tariffs on imported crystalline silicon solar cells and modules.

The EU’s request for compensation follows similar measures lodged over the past two weeks by Taiwan and South Korea, all of which take issue with U.S. President Trump’s safeguard tariffs, which apply a graduated 30% tax on imported solar cells and modules over the next five years, reducing sequentially on an annual basis and ending at 15% in 2022.

While the Trump Administration’s restrained approach surprised some industry players – particularly the exemption from tariffs of 2.5 GW solar cell capacity each year – the levy still raised the hackles of leading solar-producing regions globally.

The EU is no longer a major player on the PV production stage, but Germany in particular remains a major exporter of solar panels and cells. While the EU, much like China, Taiwan and South Korea, does not accuse the U.S. of breaking WTO rules, it is seeking a consultation with the hope of securing compensation for potential damages the tariffs may cause, such as loss of revenue.

The WTO filing reveals the EU’s eagerness to hold consultations “as soon as possible” with “the participation of representatives of the U.S.’s investigating authorities”.

China’s claim for compensation is virtually identical, setting a consultation date for February 9 or 12. China, unlike the EU, is the dominant source of PV component production globally, and stands to lose more from the tariffs than other regions. Some of China’s largest solar firms have begun assessing alternative supply strategies, with JinkoSolar – the largest Chinese solar company in terms of shipments – recenlty confirming that it will invest $140 million to build a production facility in Florida.

Last year, the United States made a similar request via the WTO to complain about India’s alleged protectionist practices; a case that the WTO found in India’s favor but which did, however, spark a series of tit-for-tat filings between the two nations that are still ongoing.

Last year saw the second-highest ever figure invested globally in clean energy, with $333 billion poured into the sector worldwide, finds a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

This figure is a 3% increase on 2016 investment levels, and is noteworthy because solar system costs per MW (at utility scale) are approximately 25% lower than they were in 2015, which remains the record-holder for total investment with $360 billion.

In 2016, BNEF says that $325 billion was invested globally in clean energy. For solar specifically, last year saw an 18% increase in investment activity. Globally, $161 billion was spent in the solar sector in 2017, with China accounting for just over half – $86.5 billion – of that figure.

Compared to 2016, China increased its solar investment by 58% last year, installing 53 GW of new capacity against 30 GW added in 2016. According to BNEF’s head of Asia-Pacific Justin Wu, China’s +20 GW growth can be explained in two ways: “First, despite a growing subsidy burden and worsening power curtailment, China’s regulators, under pressure from the industry, were slow to curb [the] build of utility-scale projects outside of allocated quotas. Developers of these systems projects are assuming they will be allocated subsidy in future years,” Wu explained.

Secondly, added Wu, the cost of solar in China continues to fall rapidly, triggering a growth in rooftop development and other distributed sources. “These systems are not limited by the government quota,” Wu said. “Large energy consumers in China are now installing solar panels to meet their own demand, with a minimal premium subsidy.”

Other countries to record sizable investment increases in solar in 2017 include Australia and Mexico, while former market-leaders such as Japan, Germany and the U.K. registered further investment declines. Mexico recorded an incredible 516% increase as it spent $6.2 billion on clean energy in 2017, but European investment in clean energy fell 26% year-over-year to $57.4 billion.

In the U.S., political uncertainty caused by the Section 201 petition no doubt had an impact on investment appetite: clean energy spending posted an anemic 1% growth to reach $56.9 billion.

By sector, solar power attracted 48% of all funding, making it the fastest-growing electricity generation technology in 2017. Wind power investment fell 12% to $107.2 billion, while ‘energy-smart’ technologies such a smart meters and battery storage saw investment increase by 7% to propel the sector to $48.8 billion investment last year.

BNEF estimates that globally 98 MW of solar was installed during 2017.

First revealed last July, Fluence – an energy storage tie-up between U.S. energy company AES and Germany’s Siemens – received U.S. government approval and licensing on January 1, 2018.

The newly created company will focus on energy storage technology and services, and begins life with a head-turning inaugural project: Fluence will supply lithium-ion batteries to a 100 MW/400 MWh battery storage project in Long Beach, Los Angeles, as part of AES’s Alamitos power center.

This is more than double the capacity of the largest battery system deployed in the United States to date, a 40 MW system in Alaska.

The storage facility, once commissioned, will deliver power to Southern California Edison and the Western Los Angeles area, Fluence confirmed, building upon AES’s installed base of nearly 500 MW of deployed storage capacity globally.

Both Siemens and AES are providing generous financial support to Fluence as the new company seeks to carve out a share for itself in the burgeoning energy storage and services market. Products that will be marketed on the Fluence platform include Siestorage, AES’s Advancion, and the SunFlex Energy Storage system, which is a Fluence original that pairs solar PV with a lithium-ion battery.

Fluence CEO and president Stephen Coughlin said that the synergies, strengths and potent brand of both Siemens and AES will ensure Fluence can deliver an “industrial grade solution that customers can count on to be there in the future”.

Coughlin added: “With a team drawn from both Siemens and AES, we are fluent in the power sector and bring the capabilities, global reach and experience to make sure our customers achieve the full value of storage.”

The Alamitos project builds upon a growing bank of battery installations that Fluence will directly or indirectly support, including a 40 MW lithium-ion battery system for San Diego Gas & Electric; a microgrid for the Mediterranean island of Ventotene for Italian utility Enel; six storage projects for frequency regulation across Germany; two 10 MW battery projects for the Dominican Republic, and three additional backup power units at solar-rich sites in Arizona.

According to IHS Markit senior research manager Sam Wilkinson, the global storage industry has entered a new growth phase that will result in much jostling for market dominance – and could lead to further mergers and acquisitions as the sector consolidates. “The companies best positioned for success will require a proven track record, technology expertise, a global service network and an ability to serve a broad set of energy storage applications,” Wilkinson said.

Israel-headquartered power optimizer and inverter specialist SolarEdge has reported record revenues for the third quarter of 2017 of $167 million – some 30% higher year-on-year and 22% more than the second quarter.

Almost 50% of the company’s sales in Q3 arrived outside of the United States, which CEO Guy Sella said was a testament to the firm’s strategy to diversify its global sales. In total, more than 676 MW of inverters and two million optimizers were shipped, leading to an increase in margins.

SolarEdge’s operating income also increased, rising 33% to $25 million against $19 million in Q2, with net income of $28 million a healthy improvement on the $16 million recorded in Q3 2016.

Looking ahead to the fourth and final quarter of the year, SolarEdge expects revenues to grow once more to between $175 million to $185 million.

“We continue to generate increasing cash flow from operations which enhances our financial strength and allows us to continue to invest in new products and development of new markets,” Sella said.

SolarEdge’s widening product portfolio has seen the company assume top spot among global module level power electronics (MLPE) players, augmenting its initial DC power optimizer offering with storage solutions and energy management platforms. Last month the company reached the milestone of 500,000 solar sitesmanaged under its monitoring platform globally.

An additional product in its suite include a new inverter-integrated EV charger.

German inverter company SMA has issued relatively positive financial results for the third quarter (Q3) of the year, but has warned that annual sales are likely to come in at the lower end of the guidance range due to an unspecified supply shortage of critical components.

Equally, while sales in Asian markets increased by 43%, SMA saw its overall sales decrease to $689 million between Q1 – Q3 2017, down from $824 million for the same period last year. The chief reason for this contraction is continued weak performance in the large-scale solar sector in the United States.

Gross sales in the Americas have decreased by around 55% to $179 million year-on-year over the period of Q1 – Q3. SMA states that last year’s performance in the United States was bolstered by a rush of activity in advance of the expected ITC expiration. In contrast, activity in 2017 has been muted under the cloud of proposed trade barriers being introduced in the wake of the Section 201 petition.

Globally, inverter sales of 5.9 GW for the first three quarters of the year was, however, slightly higher than the corresponding period in 2016 (5.7 GW). Net income of $29 million between Q1 – Q3 was down against the same period last year, where income reached $43 million.

Operating cash flow for the German firm remained high at $91 million over the first three quarters, with net cash standing at $507 million as of September 30.

Company CEO Pierre-Pascal Urbon remarked that the fiscal year has thus far gone better than expected for SMA, with particular praise reserved for its international presence and success of new SMA products. “We have increased the product-related order backlog by 25% to €350 million since the end of the first half of 2017,” Urbon said. “We expect strong end-of-year business and are confident about achieving our objectives for the year.”

Urbon warned, though, that annual sales would be more than $1.05 billion, down from the previous forecast of $1.05 billion to $1.1 billion.

Enphase Energy, the California-headquartered microinverter specialist, has posted losses of $7 million for the third quarter (Q3) of the year, narrowing its losses after posting a net loss of $12 million in Q2, and a net loss of $19 million in Q3 last year.

Allied to this relatively positive direction was a 3% growth in revenue for Q3 against Q2 to $77 million, based on the shipment of 790,000 microinverters amounting to 231 MW-DC. This compares favorably to Q2, which saw 775,000 microinverters shipped.

Accompanying Q2’s earnings call was the shock decision by former CEO Paul Nahi to step down. There were no such surprises this time around as Enphase continued it steady recovery from the tough financial straits of 2015. Operating expenses fell 33% year-on-year to $2.4 million, further underlining the efficacy of its recent restructuring efforts.

The company’s cash balance at the end of Q3 stood at $29 million, prompting new CEO Badri Kothandaraman to praise the firm’s transitions and renewed focus on operation excellence. “This will help drive further gross margin improvement,” he said.

The third quarter was characterized by Enphase’s transition in North America to its new IQ6 microinverter, with the next iteration – the IQ7 – due for global roll-out in Q1 2018.

Looking ahead to Q4, Enphase expects revenues in the range of $72 million to $80 million.

The global solar market is set to end 2017 some 95 GW larger than when it began, according to German analyst firm Bernreuter Research.

This record growth could even hit triple figures going by polysilicon supply data, which is enough to push global production of crystalline silicon cells to 100 GW, the report adds.

China’s solar PV market is on track to reach 52 GW of new installations this year, with the U.S. way back in second place with 12.5 GW of new solar, followed by India (9 GW), Japan (a mere 5.8 GW), Germany (2.2 GW) and Brazil (1.3 GW). Australia, Chile, Turkey and South Korea will all be GW-scale markets this year, Bernreuter Research said.

Given shipment time lags and inventories in the supply chain, as much as 100 GW of crystalline solar cells and an additional 5 GW of thin-film modules will be produced in the calendar year. This translates to 95 to 97 GW of installations. This figure represents a 30% growth on 2016’s 74 GW of new solar.

“Several gigawatts of solar module shipments into the U.S. will be stockpiled for installation in 2018 to avoid impending tariffs on cell and module imports in the trade case brought up by Suniva and SolarWorld Americas,” explains Johannes Bernreuter, head of Bernreuter Research.

Polysilicon price declines

The global polysilicon industry will produce between 460,000 to 465,000 metric tons (MT) this year, of which around 30,000 MT will be for the semiconductor industry. Bernreuter says that the growth in diamond wire sawing to produce wafers is leading to a reduction in specific silicon consumption, meaning that inventories of polysilicon do not need to be overly depleted in order to reach 100 GW of solar cell production.

The current spot price of polysilicon – $16.60/Kg – will fall to between $14-$15/Kg, the report adds, when capacities that are currently under maintenance are brought back online. Prices could rise again, however, if China imposes higher duties on imports from South Korea – a decision on this is expected in November.

India’s soaraway solar success could be facing some deflation in the coming months, Bernreuter Research adds, echoing Bridge to India’s recent analysis of the market. Rampant Chinese demand has led to higher module prices in India, allied to low tariffs that have prompted a series of module cancellations from China. This is already slowed installation momentum, meaning India may fall short of hitting double-GW figures for 2017.

Tumbling solar prices have been a mainstay in the PV industry over the past year, plunging faster than many observers expected and prompting serious questions of how low prices can actually go.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) believes that it has an answer to that thorny question: 60% lower than today’s prices within a decade.

In a new report, IRENA forecasts annual installations to reach between 80 and 90 GW next year, maintaining that rate of growth for five-to-six years, said IRENA director general Adnan Z. Amin. These figures exceed the more conservative outlook offered by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which forecasts a more measured annual tally of 73 GW next year.

According to Amin, who spoke to Reuters following the report, a total of 90 GW is not so far-fetched, nor far away. “China alone can do 50 GW a year,” he said. “In the next decade, the cost of utility-scale solar could fall by 60% or more.”

Prominent support acts to China’s stage-stealing solar show include India and the U.S., while the ASEAN region is likely to achieve its goal of generating 23% of its power from renewables by 2025, Amin said, despite solar’s current share in the energy mix of this region stalled at ‘negligible’.

Key to this wider adoption will be continued cost declines. IRENA’s 60% figure is calculated on expected improvements in solar technology, particularly thin films that will drive the BIPV sector. Currently, such flexible applications are prohibitively expensive.

A further 60-70% fall in the cost of batteries will also offer solar a timely boost between now and 2027, Amin stressed.

On the subject of President Trump and the Section 201 case, Amin remarked that it is rarely a good idea to protect an industry with punitive tariffs. “In the long term you want to drive down the cost of energy, not have high prices,” Amin said.

If the U.S. was to introduce tariffs against solar imports, the subsequent price rise could limit deployment and put the country at odds with the trend evident in the rest of the world; namely, a race towards even lower costs. Earlier this month the world’s lowest price was recorded in Saudi Arabia, where French firm EDF headed a consortium that won a tender to develop a large-scale solar project for just $0.0178/kWhU

Canadian Solar today published encouraging second quarter financials that present a continuation of profit, revenue and sales growth.

Building upon a strong Q1, the Chinese-Canadian solar company has revealed that its revenue for Q2 rose 2% sequentially to $692 million. Although this figure represented a 14% contraction from Q2 2016, gross profit was higher – at $168 million – for Q2 than in Q1 ($91 million) and Q2 2016 ($138 million).

This strong performance was fueled by increased module shipments of 1.6 GW, which represents both a sequential and year-on-year increase for Q2, and the benefits of a $43 million and $15 million anti-dumping/countervailing duty reversal. Average selling prices (ASPs) for modules were also higher in Q2.

Canadian Solar also saw its operating expenses reduce sequentially by 10% to $84 million, including selling expenses rise to $39 million as a result of higher shipping and handling costs and increase volumes of modules shipped.

The company’s growing downstream segment yielded a larger income in Q2, with revenue from operations reaching $84 million, up from a loss from operation of $2.3 million in Q1. This pushed operating margin to 12% for the quarter, against -0.3% and 4.9% in Q1 2017 and Q2 2016 respectively.

By the end of Q2, Canadian Solar’s portfolio of operational solar plants reached 1.26 GW with a total resale value of $1.8 billion. Many of these projects are in the United States and Canada, and during the quarter, Canadian subsidiary Recurrent Energy offloaded its 200 MW-AC Great Valley Solar project to Sempra Renewables.

Canadian Solar CEO and chairman Shawn Qu remarked that the company remains on track to monetize its operating solar power plants in the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Brazil and China, revealing that discussions are at an advanced stage for the sale of 703 MW of its U.S. solar power plant assets.

Company CFO Huifeng Chang added: “The higher module shipments were driven by strong demand for solar modules in China, India, Japan and the U.S., with the gross margin improvement dues to higher than excepted average selling price and better cost controls.”

Canadian Solar’s utility-scale solar pipeline comprises 1.4 GW of late-stage installations, while its ingot, wafer, cell and module manufacturing capabilities are each set to increase by the end of the year, with wafer capacity of 4 GW by December 31 (projected) double the 2 GW current capacity.

Shipment outlook for the year projects 6 GW to 6.5 GW of solar module shipments in 2017, the company affirmed.

An acceleration of the 70% cost reduction seen in lithium-ion prices since 2012 will drive global uptake of energy storage over the next few years, finds a new report by IHS Markit.

The analysts forecast prices for lithium-ion battery modules to tumble below $200/kWh by 2019, enabling previously “uneconomical applications” such as the colocation of battery storage and solar PV to surge.

This sharp and sustained cost reduction will help cement lithium-ion as the battery chemistry of choice in all energy storage markets, including grid-scale behind-the-meter storage, residential storage, and micro-grids.

By 2025, the world’s base of cumulative installed storage capacity will reach 52 GW, IHS Markit says, up from around 4 GW today. Last year, 1.3 GW of grid-connected storage was deployed globally, and this rate is poised to accelerate to 4.7 GW a year by 2020, and 8.8 GW annually by 2025.

In monetary terms, last year’s $1.5 billion annual revenue will be dwarfed come 2025 – a CAGR of 16% will push annual revenue to more than $7 billion by that date as utility-scale storage comes to dominate the market: by 2020, behind-the-meter batteries will account for more than half of all installs, forecast the analysts.

Other trends to look out for include the growing dominance of the U.S. storage market, which will enjoy a CAGR of 21% between now and 2025 while surpassing 1.2 GW of annual deployment as early as 2020; Australia, Japan, Germany, the U.K. and South Korea will be the next biggest storage markets.

System aggregation and demand response programs in these markets will drive value stacking and improved economics, with supportive subsidy policies boosting large-scale storage deployment particularly in Germany, Japan, California and South Korea.

In Australia, a combination of generous public tenders and large solar+storage projects are already boosting the utility-scale storage market, not least following sizable project announcements by Tesla and Lyon Group.

“For many larger players entering the industry energy storage is seen as a strategic investment with significant long-term growth potential, as storage will become a pivotal ingredient in our future energy mix,” Julian Jansen, senior analyst, solar and energy storage, IHS Markit, told pv magazine. “Especially energy suppliers/utilities whose traditional business model is under threat energy storage development is part of a new strategy tying together a decentralised, digitalised and flexible demand and generation infrastructure required for the future.”

SMA Solar Technology AG (SMA), the leading inverter maker, has revised upwards its earnings and sales forecast for 2017 following a strong first half of the year.

The company now expects sales to reach $1.06-$1.12 billion this fiscal year, up from a projected $980 million to $1.06 billion, while forecasted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) have also been revised up from $83-$106 million to $100-$125 million.

SMA’s managing board cites high order intake as the chief reason for this upward revision, with the Asia Pacific region singled out for its particularly robust market demand over the first few months of the year.

“In the first half of 2017, incoming orders developed positively at SMA and the book-to-bill ratio was 1.4,” said SMA CEO Pierre-Pascal Urbon. “The order backlog increased by 25% in H1 and amounted to roughly €673 million ($800 million) as of June 30.”

The CEO added that orders have remained high since then, prompting the firm to issue the forecast revision. SMA remains the world’s leading inverter company in terms of revenue, and the third-largest in terms of MW shipments according to the latest IHS Markit data.

Two solar projects currently being constructed by First Solar have been sold to EDF Renewable Energy for an undisclosed amount. The Switch Station 1 and 2 solar projects have a combined capacity of 179 MW-AC, and already have three signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with subsidiaries of NV Energy.

The projects are located in Nevada’s Clark County, in one of the Solar Energy Zones which were created under the Obama Administration to balance the pressures of renewable energy development and conservation on public lands. Once construction is completed, the solar plants – built using First Solar modules and single-axis trackers – will generate enough electricity to meet the needs of 46,000 local households.

In snapping up these projects, EDF RE has now made its first tangible foray into the energy market of Nevada, and will – according to EDF RE executive vice president Ryan Pfaff – use this as a launchpad for further growth and investment in the state.

Already the French clean energy arm hasmore than 4 GW of clean power capacity in North America.

While the very real fears that Donald Trump might dismantle the SunShot Initiative have not melted away, the Department of Energy (DOE) continues to plow on with its welcome and appreciated funding of the program.

This week, a further $46 million in funding was announced for a total of 48 solar projects. The monies are intended to support innovative, early-stage solar power technologies aimed at bringing further cost reduction and improved reliability and efficiency to the industry.

This latest round of funding spans two different portions of the SunShot Initiative. The Photovoltaics Research and Developmnet 2 (PVRD2) program – which focuses on the supporting a wide variety of PV research pathways and module/system designs – will receive $20 million across 28 recognized projects.

The SunShot Technology to Market 3 (TSM3) program, meanwhile, will steer the remaining $26 million in funding towards supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses setting out in the early stages of researching new PV technologies that could accelerate efficiency gains and cost reduction.

The DOE adds that cost share requirements will leverage extra funding from the private sector, and thus could yield combined public and private funding of $56 million.

“The SunShot Initiative is a proven driver of solar energy innovation,” enthused Charlie Gay, the initiative director. “These projects ensure there is a pipeline of knowledge, human resources, transformative technology solutions, and research to support the industry.”

Notable recipients for this latest round of DOE funding include Stanford University, which will receive $1.4 million to work on perovskite module design; Colorado State University, which will utilize the $1.1 million grant to improve thin-film manufacturing, and Arizona State University, which will receive $1.6 million to develop an X-ray test for the evaluation of the performance of thin-film modules operating under tough environmental conditions.

“Australia Rocks!” exclaimed Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Twitter as the entrepreneur revealed details of his firm’s latest groundbreaking project – the installation of a 129 MWh lithium-ion battery in Southern Australia.

The project will see Tesla team with French renewable energy firm Neoen – which developed and owns Europe’s largest solar farm, Cestas – to install the facility, which is being supported by the South Australia government’s $550 million energy plan.

Musk’s legion of Twitter followers quickly dug out a tweet sent in March stating that Tesla will pledge to have the system installed and working 100 days from the date of the contract signature, otherwise the energy will be delivered for free. Musk confirmed that he will be standing by this pledge. In California, Tesla completed the installation and commissioning of an 80 MWh battery farm in just 88 days. This project, however, is far larger.

The battery will be installed near Jamestown in the mid-north of South Australia, and will be paired with the Hornsdale windfarm to help stabilize the volume of intermittent renewable power being fed into the grid.

Despite Musk’s evident confidence on social media, the tycoon was nevertheless slightly cautious when pressed by reporters in Adelaide about the technical challenges facing Tesla and Neoen.

“When you make something three times as big, does it still work as well?” he mused. “We think it will, but there is some risk in that. We are confident in our techniques and the design of the system.”

Musk added that he believes the battery will offer a “fundamental efficiency improvement for the grid”, and that its ability to help flatten demand peaks will serve to bring down electricity bills for consumers.

South Australia state premier Jay Weatherill, who confirmed the deal, remarked that the project is a key part of the government’s $550 million energy plan. “I’m thrilled with the selection of Neoen and Tesla, whose experience and world leadership in energy security and renewables will help South Australia take charge of its energy future,” Weatherill said. “Battery storage is the future of our national energy market and the eyes of the world will be following our leadership in this space.”

The media circus that generally follows any Tesla announcement will, in this instance, be welcomed by locals, many believe. The eyes of the world may have missed the repeated blackouts that have struck the state since September last year – blackouts that prompted some in federal government to blame the use of renewables.

However, the Australian Energy Market Operator has confirmed that a cocktail of factors have contributed to South Australia’s outages, with higher-than-anticipated demand a leading cause for the blackouts.

A pair of damning reports published a couple of days before the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, reveal that the extent of financial commitment towards fossil fuels among the leading 20 economies means many low-carbon initiatives are being undermined.

The Brown to Green report from the World Bank-backed Climate Transparency says that G20 countries are transitioning too slowly towards greener measures to make any meaningful progress on the Paris Agreement, while a report by Oil Change International avowedly states that G20 governments are actively financing climate disaster.

The authors of the Oil Change International report accuse the G20 of “talking out of both sides of their mouths” on climate change.

The report shows that G20 nations collective provide four times more public financing to fossil fuels than to renewable energy.

Despite German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressing that climate change will be at the heart of the G20 agenda when the summit begins on July 7, figures show that between 2013-15, G20 countries steered $71.8 billion of public funds towards fossil fuel projects, while just $18.7 billion was found for clean power sources such as solar and wind.

Japan – which idled its vast nuclear power capacity in 2011 following the Fukushima disaster – was found to be the worst offender, with its $16.5 billion investment in fossil fuels during that time six times higher than its funding for renewables. Even Germany, regarded as a climate leader, plowed $3.5 billion into fossil fuel projects compared to just $2.4 billion into renewables over that timeframe.

The Oil Change International report was compiled by a group of NGOs – including Friends of the Earth U.S., Sierra Club and WWF Europe – and is intended to remind G20 leaders that the key goal of the Paris Agreement was to limit the global temperature increase to below 2 degrees C by 2050. Based on current investment levels and pledges, however, the G20 nations are pulling vastly less than their weight.

“When the G20 countries committed to the Paris Agreement, they made a pact with the world that they would take meaningful steps to reduce their carbon emissions in an effort to avert the worst effects of the climate crisis,” said Nicole Ghio of the Sierra Club, one of the groups that compiled the report. “But as we now know, these countries have been talking out of both sides of their mouths. It’s unconscionable that any nation would continue to waste public funds on fossil fuels when clean energy sources are readily available [and] more cost-effective and healthier for families and communities across the globe.”

Friends of the Earth U.S.’s Kate DeAngelis added that G20 leaders’ talk is cheap on climate, and stressed that NGOs are determined to make the G20 a success in forcing climate change to the forefront of the agenda. “We must tackle this existential challenge,” she said. “We cannot wait until every last person on earth has been convinced of the scientific proof.”

IMF data from 2015 found that fossil fuel subsidies amount to $10 million a minute globally, which highlights the challenge G20 nations face in weaning themselves off the globe’s finite and polluting resources. In 2009, the G20 said that by 2020 it would have phased out all fossil fuel subsidies, but this target has evidently been missed. Another target taken up last year by the G7 to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 was quietly dropped earlier this year after U.S. President Donald Trump walked the U.S. away from its previous pledges on climate change.

From brown to green
Equally scathing was the Climate Transparency report, which published its third annual stocktake of the G20’s climate efforts. While the report did state that G20 economies are becoming more efficient and have begun to decarbonize, the rate of change is too slow to have any bearing on the Paris Agreement.

“The G20 countries use energy more efficiently and use cleaner energy sources, but energy consumption and the economies have grown,” said Niklas Höhne of NewClimate Institute and report co-author. “The overall growth of greenhouse gases is slowing, but is not yet in decline. Renewables are on the rise, but coal and other fossil fuels still dominate the G20’s energy mix.”

Statistics published in the report reveal the extent of the G20’s dominance – and therefore responsibility – on low-carbon technologies:

• G20 accounts for 98% of global installed wind power, 97% of global installed solar power, and 93% of the world’s electric vehicles.
• Russia is unique among the G20 in being the only nation where absolute renewable energy supply has decreased since 2009, while China, Turkey, the U.K. and South Korea have experienced the strongest growth over that period.
• Between 1990 and 2014, the G20’s economies grew by 117%, while greenhouse gas emissions grew by just 34% – this demonstrates greater energy efficiency.
• Greenhouse gas emissions per head are no longer rising in half of the G20 nations. Canada, Saudi Arabia, Australia and the U.S. lead the way in terms of emissions per capita.
• Green bonds constitute less than 1% of each G20 country’s debt market, but growth rates are “remarkable”, the report said.
• Last year, more green than brown energy was installed among G20 nations, but public investment in fossil fuels remains far higher, said the report in an echo of findings published by Oil Change International.
• None of the G20 countries’ current Paris Agreement pledges will see them limit their emissions pathway by 2 degrees C, the report added.

The Great Recession of 2008 and 2009 could return with a vengeance at the end of this century if climate change is permitted to plow ahead unchecked in the U.S., finds a new research paper published in the journal Science by a trio of universities.

The research, which was led by the University of California, forecasts that with each 1 degree C temperature increase the U.S. economy will lose 1.2% GDP, on average. States in the south and lower mid-west will be impacted most severely, with the poorest areas of the country potentially seeing their incomes contract by as much as 20% from today’s levels.

The current trajectory and pace of climate change will essentially facilitate the greatest transfer of wealth from the U.S. poor to the U.S. rich in the nation’s history, warn the researchers. Southern regions will be more prone to drought, heatwaves, storms and crop failure, while parts of the Pacific northwest and New England – already the wealthiest parts of the country – will benefit from a short-term fillip in agriculture and even tourism as balmier conditions boost some crops, bring in extra investment and even reduce winter deaths.

However, any benefits will be short-lived, say the researchers, because unchecked climate change will trigger social upheaval within the U.S. on a scale never seen before. “We are finely balanced at the moment, but even areas that will do well end up being harmed if the world warms more severely,” said Robert Kopp, co-author of the report and professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Rutgers University. “That borderline of net harm marches northwards over the course of the century.”

The researchers examined 116 different climate projections, and ran through thousands of potential simulations designed to ascertain what could happen to the U.S. at various emission increase checkpoints. If little is done to tackle current carbon emissions, the scientists believe that the U.S. could be 10F (5C) warmer by 2100.

In the poorest third of the country, income levels could shrink 20% as the impacts on agriculture, coastal storms, energy use, climate-related deaths and crime, and disrupted working conditions take hold.

Texas, Georgia and Louisiana will fare particularly badly, but Kopp believes that Florida could well bear the brunt of the worst effects. “That state is home to a lot of the hardest-hit counties,” Kopp warned. “It is hot, there are plenty of old people there, and they will experience a lot of coastal flooding and storms.”

From an economic modeling standpoint, the impact of climate change will accelerate. At first, every 1C temperature rise will result in a 0.6% loss to GDP, climbing to 1.7% once the fifth degree (C) of warming is reached.

The US Environmental Protection Agency recently forecast that the country could be facing a $180 billion economic hole by 2100 due to drought and water shortages, while a 10F temperature increase would push the average US temperature above 55F – the threshold at which Stanford and Berkeley researchers have found countries begin to suffer economic shrinkage.

Global research institute McKinsey & Company has analyzed current energy storage prices and concluded that commercial customers are already feeling the economic benefits of cheaper batteries and recent price falls in lithium-ion technology.

With battery-pack costs now down to less than $230/kWh – compared to around $1,000/kWh as recently as 2010 – storage uptake is on the rise across Europe, Asia and the U.S. This growth is being facilitated by a greater uptick in electric vehicle (EV) adoption, with major players now scaling-up their lithium-ion manufacturing capacity in order to meet demand.

The immediate effect of this has been a downward pressure on prices, and storage has now begun to play a more central role in energy markets, the McKinsey report said, moving from niche uses such as grid balancing to becoming a viable alternative to conventional power generators, and a stable support act for renewable energy.

Furthermore, as more and more PV markets begin to trim and pare back their solar incentives, consumers – particularly commercial-scale PV owners – are exploring with greater gusto the idea of solar+storage to allow them to consume power on demand and export excess electricity to the grid.

And the key driver behind this new trend is price. McKinsey believes that in a matter of years households and business will soon be able to pair solar+storage with a small electrical generator and defect fully from grids.

Aside from giving customers more energy independence, the impact of cheaper storage costs could be profound for utilities, the report found.

Challenges of cost

Cheap battery storage will pose an increasing challenge for big utilities behind-the-meter, whereas those that operate in-front-of-the-meter (such as large-scale installation used by utilities for a variety of on-grid applications) will see opportunities for flexible deployment and cost reduction increase, said the report.

“Cheap(er) storage will be even more disruptive to ‘business as usual’ because different combinations of storage and solar will likely be able to arbitrage any variable rate design that utilities create,” the report adds, pointing to how net metering and FITs have served as powerful incentives to install solar panels over the past few years.

The success of these schemes forced utilities to then design rates that reduced the incentive to install solar. By moving to time-of-use pricing structures and implementing demand charges, utilities were able to wrest back some financial control against solar customers. The growth of storage, however, moves the goalposts once more and allows customers to shift solar generation away from exports to cover more of their power needs, meaning that many continue to reap almost full retail value for their solar generation.

One outcome seen in advanced storage markets such as Hawaii and Australia is solar+storage customers managing their energy needs for about 80-90% of the time, but staying connected to the grid in order to have that 24/7 access. This trend is likely to be seen soon in U.S. states of Arizona, California, Nevada and New York.

“Many utility executives and industry experts thought the risk of load loss was overblown in the context of solar,” said the report. “The combination of solar plus storage, however, makes it much more difficult to defend against.”

Faced with these market forces, McKinsey’s researchers recommend that utilities radically change their grid-system planning approaches by investing in more intelligent software and analytics to ensure the highest priority needs on the grid are addressed more efficiently.

United Parcel Service, better known by its acronym UPS, has pledged to source 25% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2025 in what is just one of a raft of new initiatives designed to make the company cleaner and more sustainable.

The Atlanta, U.S.-headquartered parcel delivery giant is hoping to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for its global ground operations by 12% by 2025. To achieve this, UPS will ensure that one in four new vehicles purchased annually will be “alternative fuel or advanced technology” vehicles. The ratio of electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrids to standard combustion engine vehicle purchases was 16% in 2016.

A further goal outlined by UPS is to source 40% of all ground fuel from sources other than conventional gasoline by 2025. In 2016, that figure was 19.6%.

However, by far the boldest aim is UPS’ goal of reaching 25% renewable electricity generation by 2025. Last year, just 0.2% of the company’s global electricity demand was met by renewables – a figure that starkly highlights where UPS can best deploy an express delivery of investment and effort.

“Because of our size and scale, we know our commitments can shape markets, advance technologies and be a catalyst for infrastructure investments,” said UPS CEO and chairman David Abney. “We rely on the ingenuity of our employees, suppliers and technology partners to help us reach goals that will transform the shipping industry and spur innovation.”

The current UPS fleet contains more than 8,000 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles globally, and it is in e-mobility that the company sees most scope to effect change, having invested more than $750 million in alternative fuel since 2009.

The new UPS “vision”, the company said, entails a smart logistics network of advanced technology vehicles and facilities powered by on-site solar power plants, off-site wind power, and “renewable natural gas and diesel” delivered via advanced energy system infrastructure.

The company recently invested $18 million in on-site solar across eight of its facilities, bringing an eventual 10 MW of PV capacity to its sites. This represents a five-fold investment in UPS’s solar footprint, having installed its first solar array 12 years ago in California.

Financially troubled microinverter company Enphase Energy has announced that it is to allow Flextronics to market, manufacture and sell certain products from its portfolio in a move that could ease Enphase’s operating expenses and severe cash flow issues.

Information of the deal was outlined in a Form 8-K filing published on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dated June 13. The ‘Material Definitive Agreement’ sees Enphase Energy license its intellectual property to Flextronics, a Singapore-headquartered contract manufacturer of electronic goods that works closely with a number of leading solar power companies.

The deal with Flextronics – a longstanding manufacturing partner of the California-headquartered company – comes at an interesting time for Enphase, which has in the past 24 months been mired in financial difficulty as the competitive nature of the module level power electronics (MLPE) industry has bitten down on the firm’s bottom line.

The company managed to raise around $50 million debt and equity capital in the first quarter (Q1) of the year, while also unveiling a suite of new products, including the IQ6 microinverter. Its AC home battery is now available in more solar markets in a move that could open up profitable and sustainable revenue streams for the firm.

Enphase also noted in its SEC filing that Flextronics’ involvement may assure the continuity of supply to its customers.

Technology giant Apple has served up the perfect riposte to U.S. President Donald Trump’s disavowal of the Paris Agreement by issuing $1 billion of green bonds with the explicit instruction that proceeds raised be steered towards clean energy and eco-friendly projects.

The iPhone maker has long been a supportive advocate of solar power, and last year issued the biggest ever green bond sold by a U.S. company when it sold $1.5 billion worth of green bonds.

This second foray follows Apple’s signing of an open letter in which the company, and others, pledged to continue supporting efforts to meet the Paris Agreement. Having seen his efforts to dissuade Trump from withdrawing from the agreement fall on deaf ears, Apple CEO Tim Cook has, with this green bond issuance, taken tangible steps towards meeting the firm’s environmental and social initiatives.

“Leadership from the business community is essential to address the threat of climate change,” said Apple’s VP of environment, policy and social initiatives Lisa Jackson in a statement. Following this latest green bond, Apple is now the largest issuer of dollar-denominated green bonds.

The purpose of this second green bond sale is to make it easier for investors to identify projects that are eco-friendly. Proceeds from projects funded under the green bond sale are dictated by a set of guidelines called the Green Bond Principles. By raising debt in this manner, the company does not have to dip into its cash reserves to fund clean energy projects.

Apple has also specified that projects pursued under the bond offering will follow the firm’s closed-loop supply chain principle, where Apple only makes products using recycled or renewable materials.

Apple already sources an impressive 96% of its energy from renewable sources, and in August last year was authorized to sell its renewable power on the U.S. wholesale market, becoming an independent power producer in its own right.

Other PV strings to the Apple bow include large-scale solar deals and projects in the U.S., while its new HQ, Apple Park, boasts one of the largest on-site solar arrays in the world.

The global PV investor landscape is, like much of the solar industry, dominated by China, but a recent report looking at leading solar investors outside of China has found that it is U.S. firms that lead the best-of-the-rest field.

The GTM Research report, conducted in collaboration with Solichamba, has found that eight out of the top 11 investors in solar PV assets are American, and so too are 17 of the top 25.

Solar PV Asset Management 2017-2022 looked at 198 global investors and found that those top 11 each have more than 1 GW of solar capacity on their books, managing an aggregated total of 15.8 GW of operational PV.

Remarkably, stated the report, the leading solar asset owner is Tesla/SolarCity – a noteworthy feat given that the firm only deals in distributed generation. The majority of other leading PV asset investors tend to specialize in the development and acquisition of utility-scale solar. Seven of the top 11 firms are independent power producers (IPPs) or utilities, the report showed.

After Tesla/SolarCity, NextEra Energy Resources is the second-largest solar asset owner with 2.5 GW of operational PV capacity under its ownership. According to the report, more than half of that 2.5 GW figure was added last year alone. If the 0.2 GW of PV capacity owned by the company’s yieldco NextEra Energy Partners is added to its overall capacity, then the IPP would leapfrog Tesla/SolarCity and place as the world’s largest non-Chinese solar asset investor.

The report also showed that there are five third-party asset owners that manage GW-scale solar portfolios, led by pure-play service provider Qintas Energy, which has grown its portfolio tenfold in 2016. Placing second and third respectively among third-party asset owners are WiseEnergy and Vector Cuatro.

Another growth area highlighted in the GTM Report is the rise of the asset management software market. 3megawatt is a clear market leader here, controlling 8.4 GW of installed solar assets.

Additional noteworthy figures published in the report reveal that 55 GW of net operational solar PV capacity is controlled by 198 investors, while 46 third-part asset managers provide services to 17.6 GW of installed PV.

German inverter specialist SMA has clung once again to top spot in the latest IHS Markit Global 2016 PV Inverter Rankings with 14% of all revenue share last year. This figure represents a very slight increase on its 2015 global share despite SMA still being unable to make any significant inroads into the huge Chinese market, IHS Markit solar research manager Cormac Gilligan told pv magazine.

“In managing to post a slight increase in revenue share, particularly in a competitive market with falling prices, and with limited in China, SMA’s performance in 2016 was very good,” Gilligan said.

Hot on SMA’s heels was China’s Huawei, which – just like in 2015 – grabbed the second-highest global share of revenue and maintained top position in terms of shipments. Israeli firm SolarEdge built on a strong 2015 to place third in 2016’s revenue chart (up from fourth place in 2015), with China’s Sungrow in fourth place and Japanese central inverter specialist TMEIC in fifth place.

“Both SolarEdge and TMEIC have had an excellent year,” said Gilligan. “SolarEdge maintained its strong position in the U.S. residential sector while also continuing to operate a very broad customer base in residential and small commercial markets globally.” TMEIC built upon its leading position in Japan’s utility scale sector to claim large revenues in the U.S. and India, the IHS Markit analyst added.

Another noteworthy performance in the revenue ranking was that of U.S. microinverter specialist Enphase which, despite offering a seemingly narrower portfolio of products in fewer markets was still able to claim seventh place in the ranking. “The module level power electronics (MLPE) space has been challenging in 2016, but even in these conditions Enphase has performed well in its key market of the United States while continuing to expand in Europe and Australia,” Gilligan stressed.

The top ten also saw the return of Austria’s Fronius, which last troubled the charts in 2012. “Fronius has experienced a similar story to SMA,” said Gilligan. “The company has completely updated its  portfolio of products and as a result has done a good job of gaining market share in Europe, the U.S. and Australia.”

Shipments show China influence
The World PV inverter supplier rankings in terms of MW shipments was topped by Huawei, with Sungrow in second place, SMA third, TMEIC fourth and Swiss firm ABB in fifth place. However, the most prominent difference between the two charts was the presence of Sineng and TBEA Sunoasis in sixth and seventh place respectively. These Chinese firms have a strong domestic presence that helped them to edge out some of the more globalized suppliers.

“For ABB, India remained a leading market in 2016, while Schneider Electric [eighth place] again benefited from being a global multinational with a standout performance in India, France and other European markets.”

The lopsided nature of China’s domestic solar demand evident in 2016 will again rear its head this year, Gilligan said, forcing many leading Chinese suppliers to target the Indian solar market in the second half of this year as their domestic market slows down. “We forecast that India will see around 9 GW of inverter shipments across all segments in 2017.”

Other notable trends to look out for this year include the ongoing adoption of 1,500 V inverters, particularly central inverters, although India may lag on this front due to domestic manufacturing requirements. “Companies such as ABB, Schneider Electric, TMEIC, Ingeteam and Hitachi have set up their fabs in India largely for 1,000 V, and may not be ready this year to transition to 1,500 V,” Gilligan revealed.

In the central inverter segment, the big trend is the increasing size of the units, as evidenced by SMA’s forthcoming 5.5 MW turnkey central inverter. This trend is also beginning to be mirrored in the string inverter sector, where the average power rating offered by most leading suppliers is rising. “We are now seeing string inverters offered at 60 kW through to 80 kW and even 100 kW,” Gilligan said. “This gradual ramp up of power offers lower dollars per watt, and is an important trend throughout the sector.”

This year has begun with a bit of a bang for solar funding, with the first Mercom Capital Group Corporate Funding report of 2017 revealing steep increases in venture capital (VC) funding, debt funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the sector.

Over the first quarter (Q1) of the year, the amount of corporate funding in the solar industry reached $3.2 billion, which is double that recorded in Q4 2016 ($1.6 billion). On a year-over-year (Y-o-Y) basis, that increase is 15%, up from $2.8 billion raised in Q1 2016.

Mercom Capital’s analysis includes all VC funding and public market and debt financing, and finds that the increase on the lows of Q4 2016 is largely due to more debt financing activity. “Corporate funding never reached $3 billion in any of the quarters in 2016,” says Mercom Capital CEO and founder Raj Prabhu. “M&A activity was also strong, with several large deals. Solar public companies also had a good first quarter.”

By sector, global VC finding – within which Mercom includes private equity and corporate venture capital – reached $585 million, which was a 78% increase on Q4 2016 ($329 million), albeit across the same number of deals.

Compared to last year’s Q1, VC funding was also higher (up from $406 million), although the number of deals was one lower (22 vs. 23 for Q1 2016). The vast majority of VC funding in Q1 2017 went to solar downstream companies, with the nine recorded deals generating $548 million of the total amount that changed hands.

The standout VC deal was the $200 million raised by ReNew Power Ventures, with Greenko Energy Holdings following on $155 million. A VC deal by Hero Future Energies was the third-largest ($125 million), with Silicon Ranch’s in fourth, at $55 million.

There was a slight sequential contraction in solar public market financing, with Q1 2017 registering $461 million over 13 deals, down from $615 million in 13 deals recorded in Q4 2016. However, activity Y-o-Y was way higher: in Q1 2016 a mere four public market financing deals raised just $94 million.

Debt financing comprised the bulk of the quarter’s $3.2 billion transaction volume, with 25 deals registering $2.2 million in funds – a drastic increase on Q4, when just 10 deals raised $610 million. Again, solar downstream companies accounted for the bulk of the debt financing activity.

General funding amid the large-scale solar sector in Q1 2017 held steady at $2.6 billion across 33 deals (Q4 2016 saw $3 billion in 38 deals), while for the residential and commercial sectors solar funding activity was $630 million worldwide – which was a sizable drop on the $1.5 billion registered across eight deals in Q4 2016.

M&A activity amounted to 29 transactions, up from 20 in Q4 2016 and 14 in Q1 2016. The Mercom data also tracked 233 mew large-scale solar project announcements in Q1 2017, comprising a total of 12.7 GW of new solar capacity globally.

“It’s a story being repeated around the world…”, state head of UN Environment Erik Solheim, UNFCCC executive secretary Patricia Espinosa and Frankfurt School of Finance & Management president Udo Steffens in the foreword of the latest BNEF-UNEP report – investors are getting “more bang for their buck” when they back renewable energy, and the data is compelling.

The latest Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2017 report finds that, despite investment in renewable energy in 2016 falling 23% to $241.6 billion compared to 2015, last year saw record amounts of clean power capacity added.

Across the sectors of wind, solar, biomass and waste to energy, geothermal, small hydro and marine sources, some 138.5 GW of capacity was added in 2016, up from 127.5 GW in 2015. More power, less financial outlay: the numbers are starting to add up nicely for clean energy, and the world is starting to take notice.

The UNEP-BNEF report shows that renewable power additions accounted for 55% of all new generating capacity added globally in 2016. So not only are renewables becoming the cheapest forms of energy, they are now the most popular. Investment in renewables in 2016 was roughly double that spent on fossil fuel generation for the fifth year in succession, and the amount of global electricity derived from renewable sources rose to 11.3% last year – mitigating the impact of 1.7 gigatonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.

For solar specifically, these trends are even more encouraging. Investment in solar in 2016 was 34% lower than in 2015, but the $113.7 billion spent last year was the largest amount in any clean energy sector and was enough to add 75 GW of new capacity – the most ever in a single year. This means more solar for 34% less outlay – and costs are only going to continue to fall, the report added.

In Chile last year, the winning bid of $29.10/MWh for solar was a record low, and further benchmarks are expected to be set across 2017 even with the expected slowdown of development in China and Japan – two of the world’s largest markets. Clean energy investment in China fell 32% in 2016 to $78.3 billion, while in Japan the slump was 56% to $14.4 billion. The U.S., meanwhile, saw investment in solar fall 10% to $46.4 billion.

“Even though investment is down, annual installations are still up,” BNEF founder Michael Liebrich said. “Instead of having to subsidize renewables, now authorities may have to subsidize natural gas plants to help them provide grid reliability.”

The report added that government mandates and incentives, allied to lower component costs, are helping to drive renewables, upping their share of the global energy mix. There is also growing “investor hunger” for clean energy, the report said, with purchases of assets such as solar and wind plants rising to $72.7 billion last year, and a 58% increase in corporate takeovers.

“The investor hunger for existing wind and solar farms is a strong signal for the world to move to renewables,” said Udo Steffens. “This is exactly the kind of situation where the needs of profit and people meet, that will drive the shift to a better world for all.”

First Solar, the Arizona-headquartered thin-film producer and solar developer, is seeking alternatives for the sale of its interest in 8point3 Energy, a yieldco it created in March 2015 in collaboration with fellow U.S. solar firm, SunPower.

In a statement issued by First Solar, the company revealed that it is working with financial and legal advisors to assess the potential sale of its stake, revealing that its future focus will be steered towards developing and promoting its new Series 6 module.

In response to First Solar’s statement, SunPower confirmed that it will coordinate with First Solar on this review of the yieldco, with SunPower CEO and president Tom Werner stressing: “We will work with our financial advisors to evaluate all alternatives for our investment in 8point3, including a potential replacement partner for First Solar, as we believe 8point3 can continue to benefit from owning long-term, high quality renewable assets.”

8point3 Energy was formed by First Solar and SunPower to own, operate and acquire solar generation projects around the world. The publicly traded entity came into being during a time when the yieldco vehicle was growing in popularity in the U.S. clean energy sector due to their lower risk avenues towards investment.

However, in the years since, SunEdison’s bankruptcy – the firm had two yieldcos (TerraForm Power and TerraForm Global) under its belt – has served to cool investor interest in the model. At the same time, the global gut of solar modules has brought down prices and cut into the margins of large solar firms such as SunPower and First Solar.

The latter is now seeking to strategically align its resources and capital to support its transition towards the Series 6 module expansion – a decision that sees First Solar take a step back from its downstream development objectives and stride once more into the realm of technology and production.

“This capital [from the sale of its stake in 8point3],” the statement from First Solar read, “would support the planned transition to Series 6 production and provide additional funding for the expected deployment of multiple gigawatts of Series 6 capacity over the next several years.

“First Solar intends to accelerate the return of capital from its systems business by selling projects earlier in the construction phase.” This, the company said, will include its California Flats and Cuyama projects, which have been offered to 8point3. Should the yieldco be unable to complete the purchase, then First Solar would look to sell the projects to third parties.

First Solar CEO Mark Widmar said that the company remains committed to developing, constructing and selling utility-scale solar plants, but added that the Series 6 has the “potential to be a transformational product”.

“As we accelerate the cash conversion cycle from our systems business,” Widmar added, “we will further enable this important transition in our business.” The CEO thanked SunPower for its partnership in forming 8point3, and remarked that the consideration of sale is in the preliminary stages and may not result in any transaction being proposed or even consummated.

SunPower’s Werner echoed these sentiments, adding: “After approximately two years of successful operational performance, we have proven that a diversified portfolio of high quality renewable assets is an ideal vehicle to drive stable cash flow growth for investors.”

In a recent financial filing, 8point3 Energy beat its Q4 guidance and continued to make steady progress on a number of fronts, not least the completion of a 49% stake of SunPower’s 102 MW Henrietta solar project and a 34% stake in First Solar’s 300 MW Stateline solar project.

Prior to First Solar announcing its intention to sell, 8point3 Energy was forecasting 2017 revenue of between $63-67 million, although CEO Chuck Boynton warned at the time that as the industry’s sole solar-only yieldco, 8point3 was uniquely exposed to the winds of change that regular buffeted the solar industry. “The overall dynamics remain somewhat challenging as investors evaluate the effect of rising interest rates and the potential impact of the current [U.S.] administration,” Boynton said in January.

This week, the company reported Q1 profit of $861,000, with revenue of $9.9 million beating Wall Street expectations. However, while 8point3 Energy’s shares were 2% up since the beginning of the year, in the final minutes of trading on Wednesday they fell 12% following First Solar’s announcement.

New analysis by IHS Markit published today estimates that the global battery energy storage pipeline for the utility-side-of-the-meter sector reached 3.4 GW by the end of the first quarter (Q1) of this year.

The latest Energy Storage Intelligence Service report by IHS Markit reveals that, of the 390 MW ‘uptick’ in the pipeline (the amount added since the last quarterly assessment in Q4 2016), the majority of new demand is emanating from Asia and Australia.

For the first time ever, Asian demand – driven by China and a growing thirst for storage in India – stands at more than one-third of the global pipeline. IHS Markit forecasts these countries, as well as South Korea, to continue to increase demand drastically over the next few years.

In contrast, the pipeline in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region only grew by 30 MW during the quarter, which represents a significant slowdown on Q4 2016, when projects announced at the U.K.’s capacity auction helped boost the region’s utility-scale storage pipeline by more than 400 MW.

Further contraction was also recorded in the Americas as project completions exceeded announcements. Most notably, the bringing online of more than 100 MW of storage capacity in California in early 2017 ate into the pipeline. This energetic start to the year was largely down to South California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric responding to the damaging Aliso Canyon gas leak that had restricted the availability of gas peaker plants to provide peak-time power, IHS Markit said.

These trends, say the analysts, point to a divergence in grid-scale battery applications where longer duration technologies and projects are being favored. Previously, utility-scale storage was the preserve of short-term ancillary services such as frequency regulation, but now more and more projects are becoming viable for providing peaking capacity – as seen in California’s response to the Aliso Canyon leak and the U.K.’s embrace of batteries for its capacity market.

As a result, the IHS Markit report concluded, the economics of large-scale batteries are improving, and the technology is to set to make more economic sense for longer-term application as chemistries evolve to provide a wider range of applications that are critical for the growth of the storage industry.

On pretty much all metrics, 2016 was a strong year for Canadian Solar. The Chinese firm recorded record module shipments, saw its downstream project pipeline grow past 2.1 GW, entered February of this year with 1.19 GW of projects online, and on December 31 2016 had 6,170 MW of module and 2,440 MW of cell production capacity whirring nicely in key locations around the globe.

But still… even a company as large and broadly spread as Canadian Solar cannot insulate itself fully from the effects of record-low module prices. With average selling prices (ASPs) for solar panels falling throughout 2016, Canadian Solar’s record module shipments of 5,232 MW – up from 4,706 MW in 2015 – could do little to prop up tumbling revenues: despite this extra 500 MW or so of shipments, 2016’s revenue of $2.85 billion was below that of the $3.47 billion posted in 2015.

Nevertheless, revenue was in the range of 2016 full year guidance, with Canadian Solar evidently abreast of the market pressures inherent globally last year. The firm’s net income stooped to $65.2 million in 2016, down from $171.9 million the year prior, while net cash provided by operating activities fell from $413.7 million in 2015 to $278.1 million last year.

“Despite strong demand levels, our revenue for both the fourth quarter and full year was lower compared to the prior year’s periods due to the industry-wide declines in ASPs that have been persistent all year,” remarked Canadian Solar CEO and chairman Shawn Qu. “We will continue to work to offset any negative impact of future declines in ASPs with the introduction of new products through our supply chain and manufacturing efficiency programs.”

U.S. trade case impacts

Canadian Solar’s non-GAAP adjustable net income was $92.7 million, but was notable for excluding $44.1 million associated with module sales into the U.S. in 2015 that were impacted by the anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD). Currently under a third administrative (AR) review by the Department of Commerce (DOC), Canadian Solar says that it is “vigorously contesting” preliminary results and has recently field case and rebuttal briefs against the DOC. A decision on this is due in April, and the company added that it will appeal any adverse DOC findings to the U.S. Court of International Trade.

Since February of this year, no Canadian Solar modules made in China have been shipped to the U.S.; the company instead supplying the market via its Southeast Asia facility. “Results for the fourth and full quarter of 2016 were in line with our expectations, other than the unfavorable preliminary ruling on AD/CVD rates by the U.S. DOC,” added Qu.

Canadian Solar SVP and CFO Huifeng Chang said that excluding the AD/CVD adjustment, the company’s gross margin would have been 13.9%, which would have been in line with guidance of 11-16%.

Making money on downstream

In addition to making and shipping solar modules, Canadian Solar’s downstream activities have been a reliable source of income for some years now, and in 2016 this sector of the business pulled a greater portion of its weight than ever before. As of February this year, the company had a late-stage project pipeline of 2.1 GWp, which included 538 MW in Japan, 401 MW in the U.S., 400 MW in China, 399 MW in Brazil, 132 MW in India, 118 MW in Australia, 68 MW in Mexico and 26 MW in the U.K.

Solar power plants in operation and owned by Canadian Solar totaled 1,195.5 MW as of February 2017, which boast a resale value of $1.6 billion. “We are actively monetizing our operating solar power plant assets,” said Qu. “This includes the recent sale of five operating solar power plants in Canada for over $310 million. In addition, we closed the sales of two operating power plants in China in Q4 2016 for more than $32 million. We are also well underway in the sales process of our operating solar power plants in the U.S., and are targeting closure in the coming months.”

Into 2017, the company expects to become more geographically diverse and vertically integrated. In Q4, Canadian Solar restored two cell production lines with a total capacity of 240 MW at its Funing fab, which had been damaged by a tornado in June last year. “We expect to restore an additional 1.2 GW of capacity by the end of the first half of 2017,” revealed Chang.

In February this year Canadian Solar completed construction of its 850 MW cell plant in Southeast Asia, and the firm is confident that it can end 2017 with 4,490 MW of cell and 6,970 MW of module production capacity under its belt.

Guidance for the full year 2017 forecasts revenue of between $4 and $4.2 billion, and shipments of between 6.5 to 7 GW.

A critical mass of electric vehicles (EVs) on today’s highways and byway may still be many decades away, but the steadily rising demand for EVs is already having a tangible impact on the price of batteries, with lithium-ion-based chemistries set to benefit the most, according to a new report by Lux Research.

In a new study titled Future Costs of Stationary Energy Storage: Evaluating Li-ion and Flow Battery Cost Reductions and Application Fit, the authors at Lux Research have found that for stationary storage systems li-ion technology will enjoy the sharpest cost reductions chiefly because of the economies of scale afforded by the EV industry.

Flow battery technology, meanwhile, will enjoy advantages as the sector matures and begins to place additional cost pressures on larger storage systems. Flow technology can already offer a compelling cost case for long-duration applications, and it is these that may well prove more popular as the size of stationary storage increases.

“Li-ion has a lower levelized cost of storage (LCOS) at most duration and system sizes,” said report author Tim Grejtak, “but the amount of space required starts to drive up costs at larger scale.”

Grejtak added that this presents an opportunity for emerging flow technology, “which can change this landscape by driving down costs.”

The Lux Research analysis modelled a range of different battery chemistries including those made with vanadium, zinc-bromide and organic/metal compounds, and compared them across a large parameter space to determine the thresholds at which each type became viably affordable.

Solely on costs alone, li-ion offered a round-trip efficiency of 83% compared to vanadium-flow’s 65%, and good LCOS of around $0.37/kWh. The optimum storage size of li-ion batteries ranged from 75 kW to 100 MW, and cycles of anywhere between 15 minutes to eight hours.

For flow batteries, the involvement of Lockheed Martin in the space could expedite cost reductions of this chemistry. The report projects that by 2018 the U.S. conglomerate’s work on a metal complex chemistry will make flow technology highly competitive in the four-hour duration market, although costs are unlikely to dip below $0.35/kWh.

The Lux Research report concludes that diversification of battery chemistries and the storage industry as a whole will also facilitate cost reductions, with application stacking and multiple value streams gaining importance, dragging average storage costs below $0.30/kWh by 2036.

U.S. microinverter specialist Enphase Energy has extended a term loan facility with Tennenbaum Capital Partners (TCP) from $25 million to $50 million as the firm continues its consolidation and restructuring efforts.

Having recently announced an 18% reduction in its workforce, the California-headquartered company is stepping up efforts to boost global demand for its Home Energy Solution, which comprises microinverter, storage and software management.

To achieve this, Enphase will steer some of the funds from the extended term loan facility towards supporting this aim. Additionally, proceeds from the refinancing will be used to consolidate and repay all amounts currently drawn under its existing Wells Fargo Capital Finance credit line, closing the facility once all debts are settled.

“With our recent market share gains, product launches and restructuring initiatives, we believe we are making great progress toward our goal of achieving profitability,” said Enphase Energy CEO and president Paul Nahi. “Working constructively with TCP, we were able to add additional capital that provides us with improved financial flexibility and further positions us to capitalize on the opportunities in front of us.”

In an 8-K Filing, Enphase confirmed that TCP will take a security interest in the company as a bond against the loan extension. In January, T.J. Rodgers – former CEO of Cypress Semiconductor – and John Doerr, chairman of Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers – invested $10 million in Enphase.

This investment followed a trying 18-month period for the company, during which time it cut the price of its flagship microinverter product by 19% in the face of sustained market and cost pressures throughout the competitive module level power electronics (MLPE) industry.

SolarEdge, the Israel-headquartered developer of DC power optimizers, solar inverters and storage solutions, has posted solid second quarter (Q2) 2017 financial results, revealing a record gross margin of 35% and revenues of $111.5 million.

Although a 13% contraction on Q1 2017, SolarEdge’s revenues for the quarter (ended December 31, 2016, but classed in Israeli accounting terms as Q2 2017) were close to initial projections. Sights were lowered on an anticipated slowdown in the U.S. residential solar market, from where the company draws the bulk of its revenues.

Of the 413 MW of inverters shipped in the quarter, 271 MW were shipped in North America. In hard numbers terms, Q2 saw SolarEdge ship 1.3 million power optimizers and 57,000 inverters globally, generating $24.7 million in positive cash flow, and posting a GAAP operating income of $15.1 million for the quarter.

The 35% gross margin was the highest yet recorded by the Israeli firm, besting Q1 2017’s 32.6% gross margin, and up year-on-year from 30.9%. Operating income fell slightly, down from $18.2 million in Q1 to $15.1 million in Q2.

On a conference call to discuss the results, SolarEdge CEO Guy Sella expressed his confidence that any financial impact of the U.S. residential solar slowdown would soon be offset by greater growth in other markets, chiefly Europe, and the bedding-in of the firm’s HD-Wave inverters, which began shipping during the quarter.

“The general slowdown in the growth rate of the residential PV business in the U.S. had a downward effect on our revenues this quarter,” Sella said, adding: “it is important to mention that from everything we can measure, we continue to gain market share in the U.S. and in Europe.

“Specifically, revenues in Europe and other countries outside of North America grew significantly when compared to the same quarter last year. While the European market is starting to return to growth, the U.S. market is still showing significant signs of softness. In the rest of the world, our business is growing at a healthy rate.”

Sella added that SolarEdge remains confident in its ability to grow revenues and profitability in 2017. For the quarter ending March 31, 2017, SolarEdge expects to reach revenues within the range of $110 million to $120 million, with gross margin falling slightly to 31% to 33%.

Venture capital (VC) funds are increasingly turning to clean energy for safe investments, with 2016 seeing record levels of cash funneled into rooftop solar and other low-carbon technologies, finds Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

Last year, a total of $834 million went via VC funds into the clean energy industry. This is the highest figure recorded by BNEF since the analysts first started collecting data in 2004, and marked the third consecutive year that the figure invested increased.

This momentum suggests a returning confidence among VC and private equity (PE) investors in solar, wind and other green technologies, having been chased away from the sector by more mainstream investors over the past five years. In 2010, for example, solar and wind projects attracted more than $3.8 billion in VC and PE investment, albeit with the latter group accounting for the bulk of the capital.

Today, specialist investments that carry higher risks at smaller scale are commonplace in rooftop solar and waste-to-energy projects. These are less attractive to mainstream investors, and thus VC and PE cash is returning, says BNEF.

“The future is not carpeting fields with solar panels,” Oxford Capital Partners LLP partner Oliver Hughes told Bloomberg. “It will be putting them on very large rooftops.”

This attitude of shifting away from industry-accepted norms was also evident at Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd, an investor in wind and solar farms. The firm’s chairman of its solar unit, Ingmar Wilhelm, said that Western Europe is now a closed chapter in terms of large-scale clean energy investments.

“Additions in the West are coming down, which is more than compensated by opportunities in Africa, Asia and Latin America,” said Wilhelm.

However, opportunities for VC investment in storage technologies are increasing in a number of ‘Western’ markets.

The British solar PV portfolio owned by former SunEdison yieldco vehicle TerraForm Power is to be sold to Vortex, a Europe-based renewable energy investment platform managed by Egyptian investment bank EFG Hermes.

The portfolio comprises 365 MW of solar capacity, and will boost TerraForm Power’s coffers to the tune of around £470 million ($581 million) once the closing of the transaction is confirmed.

Comprising 24 individual ground-mounted solar farms, the portfolio is one of the largest in the U.K., and was built during the country’s solar boom years of 2014 and 2015 by SunEdison. The average age of each asset is two years, and each solar plant is eligible for the government-backed Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) and 14-year PPAs.

British renewable energy developer Lightsource, which manages more than 1.3 GW of solar assets, will act as a technical partner for Vortex, overseeing all O&M services post acquisition.

For Vortex, this acquisition augments its renewable energy generation capacity to 822 MW, totaling some $1.4 billion in clean power investments in Europe to date.

“This landmark acquisition caps a two-year period in which our private equity team has built Vortex from a newcomer into a platform managing 822 MW in net capacity across the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Belgium and Portugal, making it one of the largest renewable energy focused investment managers in Europe,” said EFG Hermes group CEO Karim Awad. “The transaction is also an example of our group’s announced merchant banking strategy of effectively utilizing our balance sheet to support our core businesses and enhance shareholder returns.”

The portfolio carries a project finance debt facility of approximately £300 million, and Vortex intends to refinance existing debt to help fund the purchase. Tenaga Nasional Berhad – an Asian utility – has subscribed into Vortex to fund half of the equity share capital association with the purchase. EFG Hermes will underwrite the remaining 50%, Vortex said.

For TerraForm Power, the sale is timely. In a financial filing published late last year, the company cited the proposed sale of its U.K. assets as a key portion of its breakeven forecast for 2017, with the firm eyeing revenues of $570 – $670 million for the year.

Innogy, a German-based renewable energy developer owned by utility giant RWE, has this week confirmed the acquisition of Belectric Solar & Battery for a sum reported to be in the range of the high double-digit million euros.

The purchase, first announced last August, sees innogy add much-needed large-scale solar PV and storage capabilities to its portfolio, with Belectric set to work closely with innogy on the design, installation and operation of a suite of ground-mounted solar plants.

Further, Belectric’s battery storage capabilities will be a welcome addition to the German developer’s product base and R&D know-how, with storage – particularly at the residential scale – poised for even greater uptake across innogy’s core European markets in 2017 and beyond.

Speaking about the acquisition, innogy CEO Peter Terium remarked that Belectric represents a perfect fit for innogy’s strategic innovation, and will augment the firm’s climate-friendly and intelligent energy solutions.

Terium added that innogy had been lagging in the field of large-scale solar PV, and that the acquisition of Belectric will get the company up to speed with market competitors. “With our new subsidiary Belectric, innogy is now in an ideal position to successfully implement large-scale PV projects in Europe and our growth regions,” said the CEO. “Moreover, the combination of expertise in renewable energy and battery storage technology will help us keep our energy system stable, despite the increasing influx of fluctuating renewables.”

In acquiring Belectric, innogy is gaining more than 15 years’ experience and a portfolio comprising in excess of 280 utility-scale solar plants and rooftop arrays built globally, amounting to more than 1.5 GW of installed solar capacity.

Piecemeal approaches to power system upgrades will soon no longer be able to sufficiently handle the vast quantities of variable solar and wind power being added globally, and so a completely transformative approach to electricity grids is required, so finds a new report published this week by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Oft-criticized in renewable circles for its conservative estimations of solar and wind progress, the IEA’s projections on future issues arising from renewable energy should generally be taken with a pinch of salt and a healthy dose of skepticism.

Nevertheless, its latest report – Next Generation Wind and Solar: From Cost to Value – deals in concerns that are universal across the renewables and wider energy sector, namely: how can electricity power grids be best upgraded and amended in order to handle the coming volume of variable power sources provided by wind and solar?
Having become the fastest growing sources of electricity, meeting almost all incremental demand in 2015 according to the IEA, wind and solar power are bringing problems to some power systems. The report finds that integrating the first few percentage points of variable renewable power into grids poses few problems. It is the mass of power beyond these levels, however, that will require grids to be adapted and upgraded.

The report draws upon a series of recent samples and case studies that highlight how acute the problem is in some parts of the world. In China, for example, 15% of power produced by wind turbines in 2015 had to be curtailed because the power system was unable to integrate it. In some provinces, such as Jilin, that amount rose to one-third curtailment. The report states: “These losses are not paid for, highlighting an investment risk for any company wishing to build additional variable renewables”.

And it is these costs, these risks, that the IEA zeroes in on. According to the report, the traditional focus of levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is no longer a sufficient measurement of cost where solar and wind are concerned.

“Next-generation approaches need to factor in the system value of electricity from wind and solar power – the overall benefit arising from the addition of a wind or solar power generation source to the power system,” said the IEA. The report stresses that system value is determined by a variety of factors, including reduced fuel costs, lower carbon emissions, and higher additional grid infrastructure costs.

According to the IEA, countries and governments should put in place policies to maximize the benefit from the real value of variable renewables, and only then can wind and solar live up to its true potential. This could include a complete overhaul of the power system in Denmark, for example, where renewables have become the main source of power. Denmark requires a new infrastructure, policies and market in order to maximize its clean energy wealth.

On the other hand, countries such as Brazil, China, Mexico and South Africa should treat the issue of integrating variable renewable energy as a priority, and something that could likely be achieved via strategic upgrades to their power systems, the adoption of advanced renewable technology, and the introduction of policies that encourage solar and wind projects that over greater system value.

You can download the full, 182-page report here.