The US added 142,000 jobs to its clean energy sector in 2023, accounting for more than half of all new jobs added to the US energy industry. Solar led the way in this regard, with 18,401 new jobs added to the US electricity generating industry in 2023, a 5.3% year-on-year increase, and more than any other electricity generating technology.
Renewables developer Clearway Energy Group has closed a US$550 million financing facility for a 140MW solar-plus-storage project in California.
Tech giant Microsoft has signed renewable energy agreements in Asia with RenNew Power in India and EDP Renewables in Singapore, totalling 637.6MW.
While there is growing support for new renewable power projects across Europe and the US, these regions could need to announce close to 200GW of new clean energy capacity by 2030 to meet the world’s energy transition goals.
Swiss module manufacturer Meyer Burger will scrap its proposed 2GW solar cell manufacturing plant in Colorado, claiming that the project is “no longer financially viable”.
In Australia, the Victoria government detailed a new decarbonisation plan yesterday (21 August), with the aim of introducing around 7.6GW of rooftop solar PV generation by 2035.
As the solar industry continues to grow and evolve, module blending can offer practical solutions for reducing project cost, particularly as antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) tariffs could be applied to Chinese products and US domestic content is incentivised. There are strategic considerations for designing and constructing solar sites with blended modules.
Solar PV has led capacity additions in the US during the first half of the year with 12GW.
India added nearly 15GW of solar PV capacity during the first half of 2024, a 282% increase from H1 2023, according to market research firm Mercom India.
US racking provider Terrasmart has launched a hail stow feature for use on its TerraTrak single-axis trackers.
A new research project, announced this week, will seek to bolster intellectual property (IP) and patent protection for European companies developing new solar cell technologies.
A group of US solar manufacturers, including Qcells, First Solar, Meyer Burger and REC Silicon, have filed allegations that increased solar imports from Vietnam and Thailand are “injuring the US solar industry”.
