Australia has one of the highest per capita and rooftop penetration rates of solar power in the world. Our position at the top of the rankings is largely because we […]
Category: Solar Choice News
Solar Choice’s news service about local, national and global developments about solar photovoltaics and related technology.
Solar’s rise to dominance closer than we think
The use of solar power is increasing at a prodigious rate around the world and Australia is no exception. In fact solar’s growth may be have already reached an unforeseen […]
Panasonic breaks silicon efficiency record after 15 years with a 25.6% efficient HIT cell
After a run of nearly 15 years, the record efficiency for silicon solar cells was finally broken last week. Panasonic Corporation announced last Thursday (10 April 2014) that it has […]
Australia’s RayGen secures funds to manufacture concentrating PV technology
Australian solar technology start-up RayGen has signed a $60 million equity and manufacturing deal to help accelerate a technology that it believes will generate $1 billion in sales by 2020. […]
Victoria Greens launch campaign to stand up for rooftop solar owners
Victoria’s Green Party has announced a campaign to support the rights state’s current and would-be solar-powered households, which already number over 207,000. If just one in 10 solar system owners […]
$5 billion of US rooftop solar will be crowd-funded by 2019
The US rooftop solar market could be crowd-funded to the tune of $5 billion within five years, according to an executive from SolarCity, America’s biggest solar provider by market value. […]
Suntech, finalising takeover details, officially announces its return
After a restructuring period, Wuxi Suntech has officially announced that the details of its acquisition by Shenfung Photovoltaic International have been finalised as of 7 April, and the company is […]
Energy storage both opportunity & threat as regional grid operators look to shrink assets
The head of Australia’s Energy Networks Association has predicted that grid operators in Queensland and Western Australia are likely to offload some of their extensive “poles and wires” networks. The […]
Decline in renewable energy investment thanks in part to falling prices
Surging solar installations and the plunging cost of PV have helped buoy growth in global renewable energy capacity, despite a 14 per cent drop in clean energy investment in 2013, […]
Solar Frontier achieves record 20.9% cell efficiency on thin-film CIS
Solar Frontier, Japanese thin-film PV manufacturer has announced a new world record efficiency of 20.9% on copper, indium, selenium (CIS) cell, besting the previous world record of 20.8% for thin-film […]
Ecoppia offers automated, robotic, water-free cleaning solution for large PV farms
Ecoppia, an Israeli solar startup, has introduced the Ecoppia E4, a new robot-based automatic panel cleaning system that it claims is water-free, making it one of the first such systems […]
Analysis: WA moving to 100% renewables by 2029 cheaper than status quo
The WA Greens have published a new analysis that suggests that the state could move to 100 per cent renewables by 2029 with a cheaper outcome than business as usual. […]
2014 off to a good start with record-breaking Q1 solar demand led by UK & Japan
New solar PV capacity will soar to new heights in 2014, with around 50 gigawatts expected to be installed by the time the year is over, according to solar market […]
Rooftop solar: Queensland’s 6th largest power plant
The combined capacity of rooftop solar arrays in south-east Queensland, the area managed by the energy distributor Energex, has now surpassed 800MW, making it the sixth biggest generator in the […]
Hybrid solar solutions promise affordable energy: First the outback, next the grid
Solar hybrid plants are tipped as the next big thing in large-scale solar in Australia. With utilities unlikely to commission major solar farms on the main grid – mostly due […]
Solar Council’s ‘Save Solar’ campaign goes full bore in WA
The Australian Solar Council‘s campaign to keep the country’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) and its incentives for small-scale solar intact is now in full swing in Western Australia, with a […]
NSW’s Wallerawang the latest coal plant to close amid falling electricity demand & wholesale prices
The solar industry – and the changing dynamics of the Australian electricity market – has claimed its biggest victim yet, with the formal closure of the 1,000MW Wallerawang coal-fired power […]
Panasonic announces stand-alone PV-storage product for remote islands
Panasonic Corporation recently announced that it has developed a 3kW/13kWh stand-alone photovoltaic power package. The product is being targeted towards remote and non-electrified areas and has been selected for use in […]
New Perovskite material from NTU turns solar cells into display panels
If new research from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) holds true, a new solar cell material could one day turn your mobile or tablet display into a solar cell, letting […]
Net metering for solar scores another win in Vermont, faces battles elsewhere
American solar advocacy group The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) celebrates yet another victory for ‘net metering’ policy in the United States, this time in Vermont. The small, northeastern state’s […]
Are Australian solar homes getting a fair deal? QLD & NSW vs Minnesota
Australian solar households are beginning to ask themselves if they are getting a good deal for the excess solar electricity that they export back to the grid during day time […]
German startup Qinous aims to bring energy storage to remote areas
German startup Qinous has devised with a ‘plug-and-play’ energy storage solution that aims to bring access to cleaner, more reliable electricity to the world, beginning with a focus on remote […]
Solar & wind competitive with natural gas plants in US despite fracking boom: Citi
Analysts at investment bank Citi say solar PV and wind energy are becoming competitive with natural gas peaking and baseload plants in the US, despite the continuing fracking boom in […]
Morgan Stanley: US solar PV and solar-with-storage installs to skyrocket
Investment bank Morgan Stanley says the addressable market for solar PV in the US is way bigger than anyone had previously imagined; and battery storage costs could fall way quicker […]
BIPV glass likely to see dramatic growth between now and 2019
A report by market analysts NanoMarkets predicts that the market for building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) glass will surge in the coming 5 years—growing from $823 million in 2014 to 2.7 billion […]
Wind & solar dominate in Germany, while coal, gas & nuclear fall back
New data released in Germany shows that wind and solar production has increased dramatically in Germany and, contrary to what detractors say, it has reduced the amount of fossil fuel […]
Queensland solar feed-in tariff rates set at 6.3¢/kWh-8.7¢/kWh
Households in Queensland regional areas will receive a feed in tariff of between 6.3c/kWh and 8.7c/kWh for electricity exported back into the grid. The price has been announced by Queensland […]
IHS: n-type silicon, other new technologies to come in 2014
A recent report published by IHS research suggests that next-generation PV technologies will enter the mainstream in 2014 now that the punishing downturn in PV manufacturing is behind us and […]
The good and the bad of solar in Australia: One solar homeowner’s story
Like any other industry, the solar power industry in Australia is not perfect. Sometimes companies do a fantastic job of providing equipment and servicing consumers and sometimes they don’t. Recently, […]
US Department of Energy invests $2.2 million in new solar start-ups
Solar success stories come not only from big, established companies but also nimble and innovative start-ups. The US Department of Energy (DoE) has recently announced its support for 3 such […]
ATMs to power Australian homes?
Here’s an amazing fact; the 30,000 ATM’s around Australia use as much energy each year as around 5,300 average Australian homes! ATMs are a classic example of low hanging fruit; […]
