RE+ held the Solar + Storage España event in Barcelona on May 10 and 11, in collaboration with pv magazine. Our team of editors curated and hosted the two-day “Sun of Spain to Lead Europe" conference. Solar + Storage España's first edition featured a two-day conference, “The sun of Spain to lead Europe,” curated by pv magazine. The conference started with three inaugural speeches discussing the evolving PV manufacturing landscape in Europe and the United States. Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, policy director for the European Solar Manufacturing Council, highlighted the practical challenge of accessin ..read more

LG Electronics North America has revealed plans to manufacture 100% electric heat pumps in the United States for the first time. The North American unit of South Korea-based LG Electronics has revealed that it is finalizing its plans to open its first heat pump factory in the United States. The CEO of LG Electronics North America, Thomas Yoon, disclosed the company’s intentions this week during a White House executive roundtable on heat pump production and deployment, according to the company's LinkedIn account. The factory will reportedly manufacture indoor, 100% electrical units, with plans ..read more

PV deployment is gathering pace in the EU member state but grid capacity shortfalls and unpredictable shifts in government policy need to be addressed if the nation is to harness its full solar – and European energy security – potential. Solar momentum is building in Hungary with almost 4 GW of generation capacity, more than 2.5 GW of which is from arrays bigger than 50 kW in scale, according to data published in December by the Hungarian Energetic and Public Utilities Regulatory Authority. Attila Keresztes, CEO of Astrasun Solar. Image: Astrasun Solar A nation with only 26 MW of solar in 2016 ..read more

Reshoring crystalline silicon PV panel manufacturing to the United States by 2035 could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% and energy consumption by 13% from 2020 levels, according to scientists from Cornell University. Domestic production of solar panels could speed up decarbonization in the United States, according to a new study by Cornell University researchers. They shared their findings in “Reshoring silicon photovoltaics manufacturing contributes to decarbonization and climate change mitigation,” which was recently published in Nature Communications. If solar panel manufacturing return ..read more

A flat year for solar installation numbers in Japan could be seen as positive in a nation switching to new PV business models, writes Izumi Kaizuka, director of research for Japanese solar consultancy RTS Corp. From pv magazine 03/23 Japan is estimated to have had a 6.5 GW solar market in 2022, supported by the Ministry of the Environment’s (MoE) feed-in tariff (FIT) and feed-in premium (FIP) programs, which expired at the start of 2022. This capacity is comparable to the volume of solar generation capacity that was deployed in 2021. With power purchase agreements (PPAs) – for the sale of clea ..read more

Solar industries bodies including SolarPower Europe, Germany's BSW and Ukraine's ASEU have joined forces to send a stream of modules, inverters and batteries to embattled Ukraine. The donations are critical as some hospitals have been without power for weeks, leaving surgeons to operate under headlamps. Europe’s solar industry has launched a new PV equipment donation scheme for Ukraine. The announcement was made during SolarPower Europe's annual summit in Brussels and aims to give Ukraine a steady supply solar materials. Russia's invasion of Ukraine sparked a solar rush across Europe as people ..read more

Gerard Reid, co-founder of corporate finance advisory Alexa Capital, considers whether the EU is up to the task of dealing with the twin threats of the energy crisis and the pull of a revitalized US clean power industry. From pv magazine 03/23 The good news is that winter is behind us in Europe and there have been no blackouts or emergency rationing of natural gas and other fuels. The bad news is that Europe has a multitude of challenges going forward, starting with more expensive energy, poor positioning in key energy technologies, and the growing threat to European industry from the US Infla ..read more

With electric vehicle (EV) adoption set to turbocharge demand for rare earth elements in Canada and the US this decade, attempts are being made to loosen the region's dependence on China for the sourcing and processing of such critically important energy transition materials. With the electric vehicle market expected to drive demand for 200,000 tons of rare earth elements in North America through 2030, work is being put in by industry and policy makers to restore the region's rare earth element supply chain. Efforts are being made in Canada and the US to shift dependency away from Chinese rare ..read more

Last year was another landmark 12 months for energy storage, with all indicators pointing to a massive surge in demand. Supply chain instability and inflation saw battery prices rise but the industry demonstrated an ability to swiftly react to geopolitical developments. We look at five trends driving the market. From pv magazine 02/23 Cost remains a key driver in the energy storage space. In 2022, battery cell chemistry evolution continued at breakneck speed. There was a shift towards cheaper lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) batteries, which have been eating into the market share of lithium nicke ..read more

The European Commission listed tax exemptions, flexible aid, and the promotion of local manufacturing among its key strategies for the Green Deal Industrial Plan. However, the SolarPower Europe industry group has criticized the plan’s lack of focus on solar. From pv magazine Spain The European Commission has published a new document on the Green Deal Industrial Plan that EC President Ursula von der Leyen announced at Davos in mid-January. The European counterpart to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) aims to create an environment that is conducive to increasing the European Union's manufactu ..read more