Ecobuild solar Exhibition uk 2013

SNEC Pv Power Expo 2013

Date: 2013.5.14 – 16
Location: Shanghai
Booth: E6 290

PV Japan 2012 is the first PV exhibition since Japanese new PV subsidy policy implemented. Hundreds of thousands of exhibitors and visitors pour into the exhibition hall because of huge demand for photovoltaic solar recently. As is known to all, technology for Japanese solar inverters is so strict and Japanese market is now monopolized by several so large local enterprises that the PV capacity is far behind needs after the quake in Japan.

Omnik has a very strong R&D team and management team to ensure Omnik products at a world leading level. During the show, Omnik inverters, especially Omniksol-3k/4k/5k-JP, attract many visitors to come to Omnik booth for business negotiations. At present, Omniksol-3k/4k/5k-JP are on the process of JET Certificate. They have the advantages of smaller volume, lighter weight, Dual MPP Trackers, wide working range, high-frequency isolation transformer design to keep the optimum output power.

New arrivals from Omnik New Energy Co., Ltd. mean that Omnik will develop more international markets to increase its brand awareness and international influence in photovoltaic solar industry.

After Buffett has entered into the PV plant, can there be a new value of the photovoltaic power plant investment tide? In the view of the industrial people, China is not suitable for large-scale construction of photovoltaic power plants. In the short term, the opportunities are still in the US and Japan. Currently, the domestic PV power plants are mostly at a loss after being built. 2013 domestic PV power energy industry is still full of variables and the road to recovery is a long way to go.

It’s worth nothing that the investment of Buffett is the PV plant in the downstream industry. As the biggest manufacturing concentration, the Chinese PV stocks suffered a heavy blow in the global capital markets in 2012, who is the leader of photovoltaic enterprises have to face stock prices are low, and for a time in the reality of the delisting cliff. Overcapacity is the inescapable fact of the domestic photovoltaic industry. However, the domestic downstream market development is bound to have speed.

However, in the short term, the development of domestic PV market will mainly focus on the distributed power. The conclusion is made from the company’s benefits and the reaction of market. Last year, National Energy Board and National Grid Company have made the intensive introduction of distributed energy policy, which will undoubtedly be a further benefit for companies. The numbers of brokerage firms say that the domestic photovoltaic distributed generation projects market is facing outbreak. PV market model of rooftop photovoltaic power generation occupied mainly, power generation and network supplemented by is suitable for China's national conditions.

In the short term, the production cost of part manufacturers may be higher, which will cause that relative industrials to carry out preventive purchase. It may lead to the short-term presents bottoming situation of offers for solar power. In the long term, tariff may reduce the import of polysillicon and will lead that the downstream manufacturers to heavily rely on the domestic polysillicon suppliers, which improves the polysillicon price in the domestic market.

In the other hand, due to the punitive tariff in China, the rest countries may appear oversupply of polysillicon, which means that the polysillicon price of these countries may decrease.

In terms of nuclear energy, the experts advocate to develop the nuclear power but in the mainland. They hope that the nuclear power can enter into the navy. It will be limitlessness to develop nuclear power in order to expanding the power of the navy and warships.

However, the third generation of power generation technology will replace the first and second. They also think that the PV power technology should strengthen the construction of water solar accumulation and storage base. This will be not only inexpensive, but also can effectively avoid the use of farmland.

The third generation PV power technology It has the features of green, high efficiency, low price and long life. Among them, to be green is the biggest advantage. The core technology of to be green is the solar refining silicon. The feature is to take use of solar power. Although it is highly energy-consummated, but they consume solar power instead of electricity power. In this sense, the pollution brought by the third generation PV power technology will be zero.

Due to some reasons, the current PV solar power industry has been in a cold winter, but as long as the companies insist on technological innovation and try their best to improve the quality of products, the spring for photovoltaic industry is coming soon.

It is known that the ultramid engineering plastics belong to BASF's polyamide product line. The ultramid plastic can not only keep low creep resistance in high temperature, it also shows excellent toughness and rigidity during low temperature, which is the ideal choice for outside application. Besides, such a high percentage of glass fiber reinforced polyamide also has excellent ultraviolet tolerability and weathering resistance, and life of them up to 20 years in the outdoor conditions. Computer simulation tool BASF unique Ultrasim member optimized to make it meet the specific requirements of the Solar Applications, snow load, pressure, etc., and make member itself achieve a lower own weight.

The new system makes the installation on the rooftop simpler. Currently, this kind of new base named SUNOLUTION has been introduced by Goldbeck Solar. The first customer projects of 300kW system have been put into operation in October this year in Aschaffenburg, Germany (Aschaffenburg).

Besides, Ensinger also takes good use of the advantage of Thermoplastics in the injection molding process and integrated multiple functions into the plastic structure. In a single manufacturing process, Ensinger uses the snap, skeleton and baffle drainage and wiring, making the parts very lightweight and easy to install. Previously, photovoltaic devices, flat-topped houses installed system, are mainly made of steel and aluminum.

For the new energy bill approved, the clean energy power is included also. They have to pay the 7% energy tax for the FIT subsidy they accept.

The Spanish Senate has amended the Bill during the last weeks and it was approved without any modification. The Bill will enter into force on January, 2013.

The Bill is part of the new energy reform in Spain. José ManuelSori, the West Industrial Energy Minister, says he plans to finish the reform. He also says when interviewed it shouldn’t charge tax but the FIT subsidy is too high. In order to solve the problem of unbalance, he claims that they will carry out new dialogue with solar PV power industry.

One of the most important missions in the future years is to find a solution for the Spanish users. Currently, the solar PV systems with installation capacity below 100KW cannot meet spontaneous personal use.

The new policies includes to speed up the adjustment of industry structure and technological progress, Regulate industrial development order; actively explore the domestic PV application market; the perfect support policy and the role of the market mechanism; reduce government intervention to prohibit local protection. These are the certain new policies.

The national grid has published the grid pan for distributed power projects. All the projects who meet the conditions can connect grid for free and will be provided with connected services, even with purchasing the rest electricity in full amount. About the subsidy, the new policy also claims that PV plants enjoy the equal preferential policies with wind power and this regulation is first time.

It is known that, from this year, many departments including National Energy Board, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Commerce are researching on the detailed supporting policies and these are expected to be published at the beginning of this year. About the regulations of distributed power, it defines the distributed power, that is, the power may be used nearby and the projects below 10kV and 6000kW can be connected with grid. This means the PV power projects installed on the household roof can be used by their owner while the rest power can be sold to the National Grid.

The new policy made the main methods used to penetrate the domestic market of distributed power. it is introduced that distributed power is mainly applied in the city industrial park and public roof. However, the residential roofs are not appropriate. Therefore, to encourage houses to install the PV plants is mainly for the villages and residents of small towns, for example, large-scale agricultural greenhouses and other agricultural field facilities.

While in the views of companies, the direct effect of new policies is to improve the investments benefits of the power plants. And the new policy also makes it clear that the value-added tax is equal to that of wind power. The income of domestic PV companies is mainly from the government subsidy. Although the industry is in a dilemma and cannot save themselves, but after the preferential subsidy and the promotion from the government will no doubt stimulate the investment enthusiasm on the new power plants.

The new policy also stresses the support of distributed power. Relevant people say that the biggest feature of PV industry is dispersibility as many countries take it as a trend. And the large-scale PV plants actually are a kind of resources since the land is limited. As the main part of commercial investment, they will mainly focus on the ground plants and the distributed power will be in the future.

The new PV policies have three pieces of practical significance for Chinese PV application.

First, it signs that China is formally entering the FIT time. The PV policy subsidy in China has undergone three steps, from tender price to Golden Sun projects, and now it is FIT time. Nowadays, the nation has mentioned that either the large-scale power plant or the distributed power plants have to adopt KWh of electricity subsidies. This may be the biggest significance of the new policy.

Second, about valued-added tax, 8.5% is half lower than 17%.

Third, the State Council also rises that they will improve the FIT practice and monitoring. These are all the worries among the industry and mentioned, too. And now what we expect is the detailed regulations can publish as soon as possible, which has an important positive significations on the development of Chinese PV industry.

The DC main transit of micro inverter is to exchange from a single solar module and every single solar panel module has equipped with inverter and converter function. Every module can do Separate current conversion so as called micro inverter. Micro inverter can achieve the maximum MPPT, which is the advantage superior to central inverter. Then, the output power can adjust by the output power monitored by modules to maximize the output power.

As before, many inverter suppliers have to spend much time explaining the advantages of micro inverters and they also recognized, but many customers still beat a retreat due to the policies. With the publishment of national policies, the market of micro inverter has a good market prospect.

Speaking of centralized inverter, many domestic customers have realized of it. The centralized inverter has few advantages in distributed power projects. And the shortcoming, such as small power amount, short life and inconvenient maintenance, will heavily affect the system stability, which may cause the benefit loss of investors.

During the tough time of PV industry, the relevant companies will be like Phoenix Nirvana and the micro inverter may bring the whole industry a rebirth. The time to Ignore the power generation, power plant life, malicious competition from cheap has gone. This is the great fortune of the photovoltaic industry.

Omnik FAQ forum is a discussing page opening to all the customers worldwide. Any questions refer to Omnik products; viewers can put forward and will be answered by Omnik technical supporters and after sale engineers at the first time. Since the day that FAQ forum official online, numerous clients viewed the page and various questions from different countries different districts has listed. Of course you can check the relevant answers to know more about Omnik products which including the technical data, installation and usage of the inverter as well as the monitoring system.

No matter the apple or Android system, you can easily visit the FAQ forum http://www.omnik-solar.com/faq/ only if the two-dimension code application software in your phone.

Welcome to Omnik FAQ forum, join us to know more about solar inverter. Enjoy the green life with Omnik!

Omniksol-M248 is a small power inverter developed for the residential PV system. The plug and play chain design is more portable. Meanwhile, no high voltage hazard improves safety. The system availability of Omniksol-M248 is 99%, which ensures that there will be no single-point failure. This also maximizes the energy harvest and reduces power loss under the environment of shade, dust and debris.

The Omniksol-3/4/5k-TL2 adopts DSP control technology, Double CPU design makes the products higher efficiency and safer. The maximum efficiency can be 97.8%. Meanwhile, Omniksol-3.0/4.0/5.0k-TL2 has obtained VDE-AR-N 4105, which means both active and reactive power can be adjusted. Dual MPPT design makes the input can be connected separately or in parallel. The upgraded products have smaller volume, lighter weight and higher power density. Besides, it has a longer service life.

Omnik New Energy is always been committed to the design and development of solar inverters. The TL series single phase inverter received consistent high praise worldwide. Lately, Omnik new energy has been selected as one of the most potential inverter suppliers in Netherland.

The successfully develop of Omniksol-3/4/5k-TL2, not only shows the strong R&D ability, but also indicates that Omnik will keep on innovating to meet the different markets demands .we believe that the superior performance and better service of the new products, will lead Omnik to open a new chapter in the PV industry.

SolarView Monitoring software has obtained good appraise and recognized by clients. For the better use, by consistent effort of Omnik R&D team, offline monitoring function has formally been released. The function can be easily used after upgrading the original SolarView.

To use offline monitoring, both Microphone or tablet terminal and Wifikit should connect inside a common LAN. The terminal sends a UDP broadcast to the LAN, and as soon as it receives the broadcast, the Wifikit will sends back the IP address and Serial Number (SN). Then the terminal and WiFikit set up TCP connection according to the IP address sent back and get data of inverters via the connection. Therefore, without network, you can also remotely monitor your WiFikit equipment and save network traffic. The monitoring data is more Intuitive and rich. Without relying on external network makes LAN’s speed faster. It can be said that using offline monitoring can enjoy all the same rich functions compared with the network mode. When using offline monitoring, just searching the WiFi list and setting up TCP connection, the detailed data will be obtained and showed friendly. Then you can monitor your inverters anytime and anywhere without external network.

A few days ago, Suzhou Omnik New Energy Co., Ltd successfully attended the 6^th Renewable Energy India 2012 Expo held in New Delhi, which is the biggest PV exhibition in India. The Renewable Energy 2012 Expo was held in the Noida Exhibition Center on the suburban area of New Delhi on November 7-9, 2012. It attracted over 500 participants from more than 30 countries.

At the booth 3.65, hall 3 which is one of the main PV halls, Omnik New Energy attracted numerous participants and visitors with their concise structuring style. Omniksol-3k/4k/5k-TL and omnikhyd-3k/5k have no doubt been the most attractive part for visitors. In India, roof system mainly focuses on 3kW and 5kW systems. And, the off-grid system has been more and more important, which has been paid much more attention by installers and wholesalers.

During the Exhibition, Omnik participants made deep communications with local PV companies. Under the knowledge of market dynamics, we sincerely invite the clients to visit Omnik factory. Meanwhile, Omnik new energy made a draft cooperation plan with the famous local companies such as Moserbaer solar, TATA and Emmvee. Except the on gird solar inverter and hybrid inverter, the upcoming new product DC-DC detect, micro inverter has also attracted a lot of attention.

As one of the most important role in the developing south Asia, India is a hotly contested spot, at the same time. The strict demand on price is undoubted driven up the limit of the entering. we expect the next leap made by Omnik.

The omniksol-13k/17k/20k-TL is fully designed and developed in accordance with the large roof system and commercial project. It consist 13kW, 17kW and 20kW, with stable performance, high reliability and easy installation etc. outstanding futures. Meanwhile, adopting the high-frequency inversion technology, Multi-MPP tracking technology, which brings the omniksol on grid inverter a maximum efficiency 98.2%, and European efficiency can be 97.8%.the MPP tracking accuracy reached 99.9%, These Excellent Performance won a high reputation among the clients in Europe, Australia and south East Asia.

The acquisition of EN50438 certification signs that all the Omnik inverters of TL series have had the access to Danish market. As an of the most important part of the North European PV market, Danish market has giant potential and Danish government kept offering the big support.

By now, Omnik new energy has establish the partnership with the local company like green sol，via sol. We believe, in the short future, omniksol solar inverters will surely obtain more and more support from Danish clients.

CanSIA says that about the amend of the FIT of ground plants bill, the suggestion of CanSIA has been paid attention. The negotiation between CanSIA and solar power industry, as well as the government, also makes the regulations of land using improved. Visual review of methods previously applied to check the projects built in the houses nearby the government are taken used into other photovoltaic power project.

The Secretary of Energy Office stressed to strengthen the participant of community and the original residents. The CEPP and AREF also restart. The Ontario power saving Authority will improve the annual fund of CEPP and AREF to 5 million for each.

Ontario government participates in a project, which involves the negotiation to build a sustainable project as well as the whole solar power inverter  industry. the experts and industrial people will discuss the effect brought by the regulations on the Solar Canada 2012 held in December, 2012.

With the heavy overcapacity and the Shrinking market of Europe and US, the government has introduced many supporting policies, especially the free-connected with grid. This means the beginning to break through the bottleneck of grid. However, because of lacking of actual operation and relative subsidy policy, the photovoltaic power industry worries that the new beneficial policy won’t be settled. Many companies choose to wait and see even though they have the intension.

From 1^st, November, the National Grid published new policy of distributed PV power. According to this policy, all the aspects during the application to test are totally free. Meanwhile, the grid companies should bear the fees of the grid project and test and the system backup capacity fees. And the policy also definite the procedure of distributed PV grid application and limit the grid key nodes time. The cycle of grid procedure will be in 45 work days.

But the amount of the subsidy and the way to calculate are worked by the Grid Company. Whether the subsidy is given by the government or directly allocated by the Grid Company is not decided yet. The PV grid power is not the final station for the development of distributed power. The key problem is how to purchase the power and with what price. This will have an important effect on the active participation of project owners and return on investment. However, these problems haven’t been solved.

To these, the relevant companies think that national distributed PV power grid service should introduce formal documents as soon as possible and make operational procedure, refinement of Association to get rid of the concerns of owners. Meanwhile, we should Increase the technology to monitor and improve the access threshold.

It was only when the European and American has closed their door for Chinese companies, Africa has surely become the next gold ground for Chinese companies. Not long before, African government has introduced the subsidy policy applied for PV power, which has created possibility for the rise of the market. View of the whole Africa, China has been providing more support for Africa on climate. This is a great benefit for developing African PV power energy market.

Africa has abundant clean energy available, such as solar power, wind power and ground power. Especially in the Sahara Desert, as it is near the Equator full of sunlight, it has the unique advantage to develop photovoltaic industry. Recent years, the North Africa countries near Europe, such as Algeria and Morocco, have introduced relative subsidy policy.

The relevant people said African PV market is of enormous potential. It is expected that there will be 1.4 GW power development in three to five years, which the demand will consume part of Chinese capacity. With the rapid development of the African economy, the demand of countries will certainly increase and provide an opportunity for the development of renewable energy.

However, to most of Chinese PV industry, although the potential of African market is huge, the financial and infrastructure condition is not good. Meanwhile, the frequent political unrest also brings great risk, which is also the place where the "prohibitive" Chinese enterprises lie.

African market is with huge potential but also many uncertain factors. Considering the sustenance sustainability of solar power, the convergence problem with grid and the adaptation of the Chinese companies in Africa, the companies cannot accomplish a great deal in a very short time.

date:5-7 December.2012
location:Makuhari Messe, Japan
booth:P10-602

China, the global PV production base, suffered the traditional EU and US markets demand decline and the anti-dumping trade war outside. Also, there is the practical pressure of grid difficulty and high cost inside. Therefore, the Chinese PV industry has been experiencing a period from full swing to a cold winter. However, the blooming development of Chinese PV industry, the overcapacity problem is increasingly prominent. How to guide the overcapacity to the emerging photovoltaic markets has attracted the attention of the whole photovoltaic industry.

Although the Australian government plans to vigorously develop the solar PV industry and gives the supporting policy including the photovoltaic R & D institutions financial subsidies, the Australian PV industry has a blank space. As the Australian PV manufacturer is very few, there is no competition with the local companies, which means that it won’t cause anti-dumping trade friction. Meanwhile, Australia has world leading R&D technology and institution in the PV field and the Chinese companies can cooperate with them.

The grid difficulty also exists in Australia. For a long time, the grid difficulty is the concern bandaging the investment for the PV industry. Therefore, as one of the way to solve the grid power inverter difficulty, off-grid power has been paid great attention.

Off-grid power is a good way to bypass the grid difficulty and give full play to the photovoltaic advantage. PV power has the unique advantages in terms of movable and independence compared with traditional energy power. Meanwhile, limited by the sparsely populated geographic conditions in Australia, off-grid power will be the best investment choice.

Recent years, the FIT of the Europe and America has directly promoted the boom of the Chinese solar industry. 90% of the Chinese PV products will export mostly in the European countries, including UK, Germany, Italy and some other East European countries. However, the application of solar power inverter in these countries mainly comes from the policy FIT. While from 2010, these main solar countries have been cancelling or cutting down FIT plan, including Germany, Spain, Jerk and Italy, which is undoubtedly worse for the Chinese companies in dilemma.

According to statistics, the rate for sales abroad is huge, mostly over 80% to 90%.

Many PV manufacturers have shown their worries about cutting down the financial subsidy. The demand of the Chinese products mainly comes from the stimulation of FIT policies. If there is not any subsidy policy, to enter in the solar market is unthinkable, as the cost of solar power is higher than water and fire power. The termination of the FIT policies will severely test the companies relying on the European markets.

Many Chinese solar power manufacturers have turned their eyes on the domestic markets. And the series of beneficial policies of the government also bring confidence and hope for the Chinese PV companies. With the decline of the power cost and the fast development of the emerging solar markets, the other spring for the photovoltaic industry is not far away.

In the previous time, the high price has always limited the solar power application of the domestic. Chinese PV industry mainly exports to Europe. The European countries have been cutting down the subsidies for solar power, but the solar power markets, such as India and Thailand is emerging. The exporting advantage of our photovoltaic solar market is also strong.

Currently, the Chinese domestic PV power application is seldom. The decline of the PV power cost will may promote more and more domestic PV industry to use solar power. The application of solar photovoltaic market will show a wide-ranging, diverse trend. To meet the diverse needs, the solar cells will continue the development of high-efficiency, low-cost direction.

Even so, the solar power cost is still three to four times than that of coal-fired, over 50% higher than wind power. Only to reduce the cost of the solar power can it have the chance to compete with wind and coal power. What’s more, the decline of the solar power cost will also benefit the further integration of the solar photovoltaic industry.

Actually, the photovoltaic industry has been working on reducing the solar power cost recent years in order to improve the competiveness in the market competition.

To the grid, distributed PV power is a new main power different from that before. The challenge brought also should not be underestimated. People related said that there are many challenges brought by distributed solar power, such as grid operation control, protection, ground, island operation of distributed photovoltaic power generation projects. The safety of the grid will be influenced if these challenges cannot be solved. Therefore, to research and develop on the operation control and protection is very important.

In 2009, by deep analyze and research, the National Grid decided to overcome the difficulty in developing distributed power and have achieved a lot. ‘Looking back on the work then, you will find that how forward-looking those works are.’ he adds, ‘To grid smoothly with the distributed projects, the grid company should solve these technological problems. But if here is not any preparation, while all the work is pushed by PV inverter companies, the current situation will be great different.’ However, the achievements obtained do not mean that we can sit back and relax. The National Grid decided to continue sowing to carry out scientific research and technological.

To the active activity of the National Grid, the industrial people all show approval. They said that although he PV industry has been faced with stress in China, we have seen the positive attitude of the grid companies, which will give the industry a great confidence.

The National Grid announced not long before that the PV power plant below 6GW can directly apply for grid. This policy Is for the localization of the photovoltaic grid industry so as to loosen the requirement of the grid. Meanwhile, they also published many ancillary policies. It certainly is good news. The policy involved is mainly the grid users, but to improve the user demands have great effects on promoting the demand of the whole market.

Grid will cause a little loss of the National Grid Company as now the grid is for free. There are two thinking need to be clear under this pattern. Firstly, to the National Grid, the country should set a fundamental direction of the power reform. We can consider the transportation system and show charity in the future. We can create more value for the society by intelligence improvement. Secondly, to the PV solar energy companies, they should increase the intensity of the survival of the fittest. Currently, the overcapacity situation is more seriously. Since the fierce market situation has been brutally laid out in front of us, the companies with poor technology, small scale and high consumption should be ruled out.

Whatever is the current situation of PV industry, to develop solar power will be the trend. Under this background, the country will no doubt save the PV industry. As for the result and effect, it will depend on the force, such as the subsidy n new energy. However, these policies should pay attention to the follow-up development in case of the disorderly development.

At the end of this year, the GTM research will publish the report covered the solar market of Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa. It mainly includes the development future of the Romanian solar market. The irradiance level of Romania is almost the same with Germany, which may surprise the global PV persons.

Although the Romanian renewable energy is little known, the recent market development has given a deep impression. The driving force of these developments comes mainly from the implementation of the EU emission reduction targets policy. For example, in 2009, the wind power installation below 15GW has been connected to grid. But the publishment of the Renewable energy Bill, near 2 billion dollars has been invested in developing new wind power over 1 billion watt. So far, there are not many large scale solar power equipments. The main reason is lack of appropriate support and transparent policy. But the Renewable Energy Bill published in 2011 lead the bloom of the Romanian solar market. The bill was approved in April, 2012.

Under the home and abroad beset difficulties, most PV enterprises has suffered sharp decline in performance and have to respond to the dilemma by cutting down staff and reducing production. Therefore, the investment of the coal company to PV solar energy industry is an gamble, which may face huge potential risk. But meanwhile, it is also committed to be the best timing to settle in the PV industry. The analyst said that the acquisition cost of PV company is lower, which no doubt is a benefit for the coal company also suffered in a cold winter. Besides, the Country has also been working on encouraging the PV industry back to domestic market and published many supporting policies. This creates a excellent policy environment and considerable market prospects.

Besides betting on the potential of the PV power energy industry, the other reason for joint with PV industry is that the coal industry has also been in a cold winter, by the long time mining, the present coal has far less than before. For coal company to consume the malpractice of the traditional energy by diversification development, PV and other clean energy is the inevitable trend to replace the traditional coal industry.

However, even so, there are still coal companies staying calm and cautious. These coal enterprises still hope to do well in the present industry and no intension to get involved in the PV industry.

According to the publishing, this research was raised by many representatives of Polysilicon Companies, including Zhongneng Polysilicon, LDK, Luoyang Sino-polysilicon and Daqo New Energy. The Commerce Department said that the above survey merger investigations with the previous US-South Korean polysilicon "double reverse" case of merger investigations, cumulative assessment of the impact.

Solar polysilicon is the row material of the downstream photovoltaic products. In the first half year of 2012, the above four Chinese companies produced polysilicon 28,484 tons, account for 79% of the total national production. These companies think that as the downstream PV companies almost stop production in Europe. The EU polysilicon companies have speed up to export polysilicon to China. Among them, German companies have more competitiveness due to subsidy from their government.

The custom data cited by Chinese PV solar energy industry union, shows that China imported 64,600 tons of polysilicon, 60% from US and Korea. The polysilicon from EU are imported from Germany, a little part is from Italy. From January to July, the imported polysilicon average unit price has a 53.4% decline compared with that of 2011.  The commit members think this shows that overseas has dumping polysilicon to China.

The analysis shows that the Commerce department raising research is the counter measure to the prevailing anti-dumping research EU has done to China. To tax tariff on the EU polysilicon will no doubt benefit the Chinese polysilicon companies. But meanwhile, it will also increase the cost of downstream PV companies.

The PV industries on the industrial chain all said that artificial trade barriers are not supported by any aspect of the photovoltaic industrial chain.  

From November 1^st, the National Grid will provide the System Access Solution, grid test and adjust services and all are free. According to the document before, the fee, which is brought by the distributed PV projects connect to the public grid of the system below 10kW and no more than 6 MW total installed capacities of the individual and outlets, will be invested by grid companies.

Meanwhile, Financial Department, National Development and Reform Commission and National Energy Board have published the Notice of additional grant funds for renewable energy tariff subsidies directory (second batch). There are total 26 provinces projects including wind power, solar power, biology and wind-solar on the list.

National Energy Board officials said to the public that the Board has planned to hold a national PV work conference, to study the development of the industry and supporting policies.

New energy projects including wind, solar and PV are all intermittent energy. Their accesses have a certain influence on the voltage of the grid. Consumer satisfaction is always the biggest obstacle. The official said the fee for an access point for PV grid is 420,000 RMB. As a 1MW project, which needs over 10 access points, needs only access fee over RMB 4,000,000.

The Manager of National Grid said that they have obtained major breakthrough in terms of grid construction, grid access, market consumer satisfaction, operation management and the standard setting, which has overall met the need for rapid development of China's photovoltaic power generation. By the end of September this year, the PV power grid capacity among the operation area is 27.1 million KW, which has a 4.2 times of year-on-year growth. And the power capacity is 2.52 billion kWh, 5.4 times growth. China has become one of the countries with highest growth speed.

Facing the good development environment of domestic market, the first problem is how to response to the call of national policy, to seize opportunities for development of the domestic market and maintaining industry leading. It should be pointed out, by way of subsidies distributed development policy tilt and kilowatt, PV inverter companies will be required of higher demands and standards for fine management, technology upgrades, product quality control and high specification components, design and development capability, which makes some SMEs eliminated with poor ability to resist risks, do not grasp the core production technology, or cannot be adjusted according to changes in the market. The good news is that there are many PV companies has been in this long-term, reduce product costs through technological progress, market strategy and focus more on the development of the domestic market.

I believe that these companies have fully prepared and done enough to force domestic market. They should master development initiative through technical innovation and differentiated marketing, product upgrades. Analysts believe that the four national ministries, 36 banking institutions, the photovoltaic industry alliances and outstanding enterprises to "feel the pulse" the development of the industry, offer advice on the next stage of development opportunities for businesses to boost the confidence of the community on the development of the photovoltaic solar inverter industry, seeking a more tolerant financial policy environment with good guiding role.

After a new industry has positioned clearly, the industry should achieve by the development of new products. It needs large-scale investment on the research and development of PV power technology. The second step is to push the use and market consumption. The third step is to expand production. Only when the consuming market has formed, expand production has the effect on achieving the maximum profit, which the industry can truly enter the growing stage. The government subsidy can serve its purpose.

Meanwhile, the government development fund or the consuming subsidy change the development way of emerging industry relying on investment to expand production and to promote the fundamental change of development way by energy-saving consumer. For this significance, the change of the emerging industry ways plays an important role in economy development.

If the emerging industry succeeds change, the solar power inverter electricity will used in the Northwest China Gobi Desert. The Chinese clean energy strategy and economic sustainable development will reach a new high stage. For the large-scale private funds and investors, to invest in the emerging industry is no more a conceptive speculative behavior but a rational investment which can get benefit.

On this exhibition, the authorized distributors of Omnik, SUNOVA ENERGY and WEILLZ AUSTRALIA SOLAR PTY LTD, displayed our newly developed hybrid inverter Omnikhyd-3.0k-TL/5.0k-TL and the latest monitoring system and product applications, including WiFi/GPRS monitoring and the Omnik Solar App used for Iphone, Ipad and Android smart phone.

Omnikhyd-3.0k-TL/5.0k-TL is a hybrid inverter newly developed by Omnik, with maximum efficiency 97.6% and Euro efficiency 97.0%. The transformerless design makes the product more convenient and easier to install and operate. The Hybrid inverter adopts the wide MPPT range 150 – 400Vdc, which can be compatible with different module technologies. Besides, Omnik New Energy also showed the wireless monitoring equipment WiFiKIT/GPRS KIT and the monitoring App software designed by Omnik for the Iphone, Ipad and Android smart phone. The visitors are attracted by the real time monitoring and showed great interest.

On this All Energy exhibition, the Omnik staff displayed how to use these kinds of monitoring equipments to monitor a working inverter and let the customers experience the convenience and fun brought by the monitoring equipment and system.

All Energy 2012 has featured over 230 exhibitors from 15 countries, filling over 3,600+ m2 of floor space, making it the largest single meeting point for the clean energy sector in Australia. This participation not only creates a friendly communication space, but also expands the brand awareness of Omnik New Energy. It also promotes the company's products and technologies, and transfers the Omnik’s business philosophy, which plays a foreshadowing role for the further development and further exploration of the Australian market of the Company. 

6TH RENEWABLE ENERGY INDIA 2012 EXPO
Date:7-9,November
Location: region of Delhi, India
Booth: 3.65

It is understood that the involved Chinese company will face a 40% cost improvement. The worst is the following Europe action. For the anti-dumping research the Europe did on Chinese company, the Chinese Department of Commerce claimed that recently, the global PV inverter industry cooperated closely as the Sino-Europe PV industry is a interdependent and mutually beneficial cooperative relations. They appeal that the Europe can consider the station and suggestion on Chinese behalf from the Sino-Chinese economic and trade cooperation in the overall situation, which can solve the trade friction by consultation and cooperation.

There is report said that due to the double anti-dumping, the leads has require to publish the relative policy of supporting the development of the PV industry, to expand the domestic demand, promote the cooperate mergers and industry innovation improvement. The series policies of the National Office were made under this background. However, for the dilemma, the Ministry of Industry, Energy Bureau and other departments are preparing a series of supportive policies to push the large-scale start of the domestic PV market and the orderly development of PV industry. Faced with the current situation, the government and the competent authorities first cannot protect behind. The backbone enterprises want to keep, but must be adjusted.

The essential problem need to consider is that why Chinese would no doubt to be attack down as long as the anti-dumping is carried out. The vice president of Chinese Renewable Energy Society, Meng Jingan, said that the root cause is that the core technology and key equipment, even row material are all imported from overseas. This weakness has grasped by others. The others has deeply knew that the Chinese company couldn’t overcome the weakness, which leads to the sever harm of anti-dumping.

Only can the Chinese companies do themselves, devote to the technology innovation and grasp core competitiveness, which can master the ability to penetrate international market.

On the other hand, the solar inverter industry in Taiwan also thinks that domestic PV market has suffered a bottleneck in terms of grid. Therefore, to promote distributed power can not only solve the unpleasant between grid operators and system operators, but also can reduce the load and uncertainty of grid. In the future, under the function of the policy, the demand of micro solar inverter appeared obvious increase.

Besides, the industrial thinks that from SPI to EUPVSEC exhibitions, the inquiry of the micro inverter is always higher. Besides the micro inverter architecture do good to improve the system overall output efficiency, the other benefit is that domestic demand is expected to heat for their own use With the growth of the distributed market, while the micro inverter with DC output is more competitive.

Although the cost of micro inverter is still twice higher than the traditional product, as the power fee has kept increasing in European area, the government subsidy has kept decreased. The benefit of the saving power fees in the future will superior to the government subsidy. The personal use market will be expected to be the mainstream solar market development. With expand of the market, micro inverter is expected to equal to the existed products with a quick decline, even a much lower degree.

Distributed generation is a new power and energy comprehensive utilization with broad development prospects. It promotes the principle of nearby power generation, nearby grid nearby conversion and nearby use. This way can not only improve the power capacity, but also solve the consumption problem during the boost and long-distance transport. However, distributed generation has raised strict requirement of how to maximize the solar power capacity and how to ensure the grid safety. The functionality and stability of the PV inverter have also become the key parts.

Distributed generation way raised three key requests for solar inverter. The first one is whether can really achieve to improve the power capacity of the plant with same scale. The second one is whether can get the effectively supporting grid. The supporting capacity is the grid-friendly ability to manage power, adjust active and reactive power and anti – interference. The last one is whether can form the ability to effectively and intelligently monitor a number of inverters throughout the distributed power station.

Therefore, the PV inverter application will directly influence whether a distributed PV plant can operate stable and efficiently. Although the Chinese PV distributed power has been in its initial stage, the development of the PV inverter has been relatively mature. For example, the Omnik New Energy from Suzhou, the Omniksol-2k-TL R&D independent of Omnik has ranked first of European efficiency, which has functional stability and has reached the leading place all over the world.

It is expected that under the encourage and pushing of the positive policy, Chinese inverter manufacturers can continue to insist on quality management and technology innovation to make the key part in distributed generation, solar inverter, become more and more stable.

Facing the above complex situation, Chinese companies can shift the module production to Europe and invest solar plant directly. Also, we can actively explore new markets and coordinate export prices in Australia, Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America to avoid vicious competition.

To directly invest PV plant in Europe is a great attractiveness for the Chinese investor and exporters. The European countries adopt financing policies, such as capital subsidy, net metering and feed-in tariff, to support the development of PV industry. The more developed countries of the EU internal solar industry have a clear solar power feed-in tariff policy to encourage their R & D, project development and wide application. These subsidy regulations have become legal obligations in some countries. To invest Europe will bring a mutual benefit and win-win situation.

Director of the international political and economic center of Europe said that European economic has met difficulties because of the European economic crisis. Many European countries have been expecting the Chinese enterprises to invest. He stressed that the investment from China will properly increase employments, which promotes the recovery of the economy.

Tenured professor of International Management School in Lausanne, Switzerland Rahman has also said that China and Europe should seek cooperation in the key green technological area, such as solar power. Chinese companies directly investing in the PV plant projects in Greece, Romania and Italy will be a very positive step. Meanwhile, Rahman admitted that the overseas public relationship of Chinese companies was always weak. Therefore, what they need is a strong PR team to Guide enterprises to straighten out the terms of the administrative and political framework of the EU internal complexity.

The Asian affairs representative of international trade and sustainable development center headquartered in Geneva, Shuaihua said not to invest in investment. To form brand, good product value chain management, and full integration with the local socio-economic.

Recently, the Chinese PV company has got long-absent good news. The Chinese Energy Board has published the Reporting large-scale applications of distributed photovoltaic power generation demonstration area, which will push forward the scale development of distributed power with financial funds.

This published form is viewed as a continue of the leveraging the marketing strategy before. The difference is that this time has more power. This publish of the inform is expected to encourage the construction of the distributed power system of 15 million kilowatt. For the Chinese PV industry, this will no doubt be a feast.

For the role of the industry by this inform, the industrial people has also had unqualified opinion. Part of the industrial people worry that the directly stimulate of the domestic market will make domestic photovoltaic inverter investment follow in the step of the field of wind power generation. It will take the road of the Excess overcapacity production tomorrow to solve today's overcapacity problems.

The government should seek truth from facts and according to the local conditions to make the saving plans. They should start from the important leading enterprises in key aides, serious study of the key issues facing the photovoltaic enterprises, aid into the capital, shares, restructuring and other means to force the photovoltaic business turnaround, leaving a spark for the speed development in the future.

Recently, British Ministry of Energy and Climate Change said in the British Solar Forum exhibition that the 98.2% of the PV power inverter equipment installed in UK will get the FIT subsidies. Natural Gas and Electricity Markets Authority will set the FIT price for the PV power equipments according to the British deployment of data.

For the decreasing British FIT, this FIT subsidy plan will be a positive activity and will placate the public powerfully.

During the twelfth five-year plan, we will focus on the distributor power system and the installation capacity of 10GW. In the districts with abundant solar and ground sources, such as Qinghai, Xinjiang, Gansu and the Inner Mongolia, to build the installation capacity of 10GW is to achieve the goal to promote the local power supply. Based with the consistence of the economic and the solar inverter power, we will build the solar power of 1GW total installation capacity.

For the great PV solar station of 10GW, whether it can grid successfully and operate normally will be the key to promote the sustainable and orderable development of the power station. The rapid development of the distributed power also needs the corresponding mechanism of the grid connection and operation. Therefore, the grid promotion and the operation mechanism will be the important factors to ensure the development of the solar power.

Due to the problems of the power cost and the grid, the domestic power market hasn’t been launched yet, which leads the Chinese PV industry to be a dominant export industry. The change of the FIT of other countries and the anti-dumping research from Europe and America will cause the frequency fluctuation of the PV achievement. Some criticizer also points out that the Chinese PV manufacturers leave pollution behind and deliver the clean energy to the European country.

Influenced by the decline of the overseas demand and the deteriorating trade situation, our export-oriented PV enterprises are still in a industry cold winter. But, as the gold sun policy and the indomitability of the twelfth five-year plan, the domestic solar power market will get a new development.

The Agreement aims to strengthen the close cooperation in the PV inverter test area, to promote the research and comparison on the standard setting and the benchmarking and mutual recognition of each laboratory.

The national energy solar power research and development center (experimental) will cooperate with relevant department and rely on the national grid company, the China Electric Power Research Institute responsible for the specific construction and day-to-day management, to Committed to addressing China's large-scale solar power grid application of technical problems. The national energy solar power research and development center (experimental) is the authorized institution on solar power grid research and the detection test. Fraunhofer Institute is one of Germany's largest, most authoritative scientific research institutions in the photovoltaic field, the world-renowned photovoltaic research institutions, which have a very high international reputation in the field of photovoltaic detection. German Meng Taike - Alcorn is a high reputation detection services company with long history. It has provided service and technical support for the detection business in dozens of countries.

The signing of the Agreement will further strengthen the wide cooperat5ion of the Germany and China on PV and related fields. It is helpful to promote the technology improvement and the perfect of function of the PV products in two countries. And it will promote the internationalization process of our country.

There is a solar house in the China University of Technology. The 200㎡ house looks a little strange. There are full of metal plates on the above and two sides. The difference is that the entire power source is from solar power. Ji Jie Professor said that the solar house was built in the early this year. It all cost over 1.5 million RMB. The heating, air conditioning, hot water, power generation, lighting and ventilation are all from solar PV power. It is environment protection and saves energy. The house is totally independent R&D by the Technology University of China. Part of the technology in the solar house can be civilian use and has economic benefit. If the conditions permit, it is total possible for the public to live in the solar house in the future.

The solar ship will show up soon. As the scenic area has big noises and produced lot of pollution, it is a damage of the ecological water surface. Therefore, the director of the Anhui Company decided to build a solar ship.

Recently, the 11-person ship has been finished establishment and it relies on the solar power. If meeting the rainy weather, the ship also can be use by charging.

Before, the public thought the smokeless barbecue environmental protection. A foreign specialist introduces that the barbecue with solar power is more environment protection. It replies on the reflective plate to catch the heat of solar PV and do the barbecue. This is popular in the overseas. Actually, there is solar barbecue in China. In the Sun Valley in Dezhou, Shandong, to roasted sweet potatoes, baked bread and stew beef with solar power is one of the specialist tour projects in Sun Valley. In the fine weather, even in winter, to bake a bread only need five minutes, 40 minutes for roasting the potatoes, stewing beef and boiling the water. And they all rely on the solar power.

Energy is essential in our daily life. in the past, we relied on the fossil fuels to obtain energy. But the mine and burnt of the coal, oil and natural gas are proved to cost highly for health, environment and economy.

Coal has done a great harm to the environment and the health of the public. According to the researchers’ ‘optimistic’ estimates, the pollution cost of every year is 188 billion and the cost of global warming is 62 billion. Researchers also studied on the dead number. A research from California University also showed that the mine pollution lead to the hidden cost of 74 billion every year. And the economic subsidy, transmission accident and some other side effects will also made the power cost double. By contrast, the clean fuels, such as wind and solar power are more competitive.

The report shows that the concentrating power plant will only consume 300 liters of water for each MW, which is less than that used 1/10 of closed-loop nuclear reactors and 1/6 of the coal power. The PV power plant and the distributing power plant use also less water. Nuclear power uses the most water among all the ways of power. And the coal power is also the big water-consuming. In the United States 62% of the ring closed cooling system has water consumption between 2600-4200 liters of the nuclear power plant per megawatt-hour. The water consumption of coal power generation is also great, between 1900-2300 liters of water consumption of per megawatt coal power stations ring closure system, which most of them is evaporated. Biomass power generation is also very water consumption.

These energies have a great demand of water and will lead to water pollution. Nowadays, the water material has been in a lack statue. We should take further knowledge of the urgency of the lack of water and the necessity of the development of clean fuels, such as wind power and the solar power.

The industry has recognized that this is another heavy attack after the decline of the purchasing price for the renewable power in July of this year. The Bulgaria Wind Commit thought that this decision is discriminatory and illegal. It may drive many plant companies to bankruptcy.

Early in the July of 2012, the Bulgarian government has claimed to reduce 50% of the FIT of new solar power approved in the April. The Semerdzhiev said then: ‘Our decision has not occurs substantive change yet and only the renewable surcharge need change. As the production of renewable solar energy has improved, therefore, it leads to the NEK a great loss. This change has only considered of the current situation instead of the future.’

As Chong Quan said, Chinese government and the PV industry are highly concerned about the anti-dumping research. Actually, in the PV industry chain, the complementary characteristics between China and France are obvious, as it is the result of the economic globalizations and international division of labor. Therefore, the Sino-European PV inverter industry related closely and the development will certainly benefit the others if one of them has the reputations.

Chong Quan added that to criticize Chinese companies of anti-dumping has no basis. The Polysilicon is the main row material of the PV panel. Recently, the imported cost of the polysilicon has been increased, which leads to the decline of the PV modules. Meanwhile, the Chinese industry relies on the advance of the technology and the scale production which also causes the decline of the cost. This is the reason that Chinese PV panel has the advantage of the price.

Sino-European PV industry has to cooperate and overcome the crisis. The Chinese government hopes that the France can make a positive effect in the EU and support the both sides to solve the problem by negotiation to keep the healthy development of the Sino-European economic relationship.

The French side said that France consistently opposed the trade protectionism and will insist on the common consensus reached at G20 summit. France takes serious of the relationship with China. The potential development between China and France has great capacity.

It is said that the Indian anti-dumping Bureau has received the application of the Indian industry. They applied to carry out the anti-dumping research of the solar panels or part of them exported from China, Taipei of China and the America.

A market analysis report shows that in 2011, the amount of PV panel module exporting was 346GW. I f calculated by the 4.6/W price, the export amount will be 1.6 billion USD. This figure is far less than the 20 billion exporting amount of the European market. Besides, the installation capacity of India in 2011 is 480MW, only occupied 2% of the global installation capacity.

Although the scale and the amount is small, compared to the above figure, 62% of the Indian installation capacity 480MW are from China.

An analysis said this means that the Chinese PV inverter giants have occupied a pivotal position in the Indian market. Once the India put up the anti-dumping, these companies’ advantages will be irrevocably lost. From this view, the side effect of the Indian anti-dumping should not be overlooked.

But some industrials worried that under the background of the dilemma, the Domino effect of anti-dumping may spread to the Asian emerging market. the deep effect will lead to the result that the effort of the Chinese companies to penetrate the overseas market burned. The status of Chinese companies on the global PV market will continue to be marginalized.

The Chinese PV industry has occupied over 60% of the global market. The annual rate has been over 100% for five consecutive years and the production capacity is about 500 billion dollars. To promote the development of PV industry, besides the support of our government, the pullet of the foreign market and the compared advantage of the production cost are also the reasons. However, the double anti-dumping is going to weaken or even collapse of this advantage.

The situation of the PV exports Road encountered plugging may still happens in the future. For this reason, the PV industry should take the focus from overseas to domestic market. the expert said that this needs the change of the current policy and solve the problem of grid. It may be a long process to change but it is definitely the way of the development in future.

With the decline of the power cost, there is the ability for the PV product to widely promote in domestic country. In some countries, the solar power generation can compete with the traditional energy without subsidy. If the PV power is self-use, the superfluous solar inverter power can be sold, then the investor may benefit. But one of the difficulties is the PV power should sell by grid company. Therefore, it is recommended that the domestic industry should carry out self-contained solar and other new energy products to enter the policy of public facilities and family support, and even promote the relevant legislation.

After April 1^st, the subsidy of the power station over 5MW is reduced from 2ROCs to 1.5ROCs, and it will be reduced to 1.3ROCs by 2014. The subsidy of 2015 and 2016 will be 1.1ROCs and 0.9ROCs. Originally, the UK government planned to reduce the subsidy of 1.9ROCs by 2015 and for 2016 and 2017 of 1.8ROCs.

ROC permitting system that is Renewable Obligation Certificates Policy, was firstly raised in the Renewable Energy released in 2002. The purpose of the policy is to ensure the supply of solar energy and achieve the goals of energy conservation and emission reduction. Meanwhile, it is to encourage the renewable energy into the power market.

Every MWh power powered by electricity companies will get the ROC permit released by monitoring institute. The power company can sell their power to the power-supplying company, but also should hand in the power-supplying company the ROC permits with equal quantity. The power-supplying company should deliver the permits to the monitoring institute to complete the cycle of the ROC permits.

Most of power generation companies is that each MWh renewable PV inverter power, the power monitoring institute should give a ROC permit. But according to the different kinds of energy power, the institute can regulate that the power over a certain amount can apply the ROC permit.

Recently, the trade distributes between China and Europe has attracted many attentions from all over the world. The Ministry of Commerce of China will organize a team to negotiate to Europe.

PV product is the Green low-carbon product as known by global public.

The statistics show that EU has occupied over 60% market share of Chinese exported PV products. The export amount has been $20.4 billion.

China will make a negotiation with EU to try their best to protect the benefit of Chinese PV companies. Meanwhile, China will promote the demand of domestic market for the solar product and make policy to adjust the overcapacity industry.

As a matter of fact, EU provides China with many row materials and equipment. The Sino-Europe industry is a kind of interdependent and mutually beneficial cooperative relationship. China wishes to solve the problem by negotiation in a win-win situation.

PV industry crisis is a signal. Each coin has two sides. The international market, especially the EU market, shrinks. Can this be an opportunity to penetrate the domestic market?

PV industry will possibly to subsidy the terminal market to promote domestic demand.

During the production, rely on technology and innovation to promote the competition of the whole industry. While in the sales period, we should get rid of the dependence of the international solar power market and gradually to transfer to the domestic market.

Date: 10-11 Oct.2012
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Booth: E215

For the action of EU, many domestic PV companies claim that the anti-dumping complaint has totally been unfounded and we would closely cooperate with the investigation to prove thaat the Chinese PV industry in Europe doesn’t exist dumping activity.

Meanwhile, we would concentrate on producing high qualified PV power products based on the R&D investment.

Solar industry is an international and integrated industry. The trade protectionism will bring the whole industry with heavily bad effects and losses. This runs in the opposite direction with goal Produce the power public can afford. Besides, the protectionism will prevent decline of the solar power cost, which will lead that the PV industry will survival by the subsidy of the government.

Benefited from the open market environment and the fierce competition, solar power has begun to achieve grid parity. The wide use of solar power is helpful to improve the European energy structure in order to achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In some European districts, compared to other fossil energy, the solar power cost has been of competition. This trade war may cause the results of the development of the solar industry for many years, capital investment and technological innovation burned.

PI China is the third test center established in Suzhou which is invested by PI Berlin. This center will adopt the same test ways and standard with German labs. PI China will make efforts to the PV product technology, the test, certification, consulting and the development of the project. Also, it will provide product quality test project and the professional person training service.

‘PI China will provide more authorized passport for Chinese PV inverter products entering into the global market.’ The PI China manager Chen Qin introduced that as the PV industry competition become more and more fierce, the product quality is related to not only the development of the individual companies, but also the international status and the overall development of the whole Chinese PV industry.

The participant guest Zhu Jingbing, Vice president of Suntech quality Department, expressed the common wishes of customers domestic and foreign. He said: ‘We hope that the PI China will help more Chinese PV manufacturers to improve the quality and quality awareness of their products in order to push the products with more security and high quality to the world.’

The 27th EU PVSEC Exhibition takes place from 25 to 28 September 2012 at the Messe Frankfurt fairground in Germany. The four-day trade show of the global photovoltaic and related industry attracts companies and solar organisations from around the world. The Exhibition, running alongside the Conference, is an excellent showcase for the technology and service providers of the PV Solar sector.

date: 25-28 Sept.2012
location: Frankfurt, Germany
booth: Hall3.1/F11

The research director of NPD Solarbuzz Wolfgang Schlichting points: ‘The strong increasing demand of the Asia-Pacific region and other emerging PV inverter market provide new engine for the PV companies active in the downstream market. However, due to the uncertainty caused by the keeping reducing of the preferential policies and the trade distributes, in the rest time of 2012, the PV market in the mature area’s short-term operating environment will still be full of challenges.’

Japan is the next Asia-Pacific country to provide new downstream opportunity. The new FIT plan as well as the projects of China and India by the end of the year will push a great potential PV demand in the Q4 of 2012. Over 50% of the demand in Asia-Pacific is expected to happen in Q4 in 2012.

RPS is still the main driving force of the NA region. The report of NPD Solarbuzz about the NA PV market, driven by the RPS requirement, the American market is expected that in the second half of 2012 the market will add 1.2GW of ground power station photovoltaic inverter system, which occupies 60% of the total demand of US.

The European PV market increased 32% compared to last year in the first half of this year to be 8.5GW. However, in the main PV markets, such as Germany, UK and Italy, the reduction of the preferential policies make the demand share keep reducing. The increasing opportunity will transfer to the emerging market in a few years, including Austria, Denmark, Israel and European countries in east and southeast.

Schlichting added: ‘In several quarters, the global PV market will still compete fiercely. Many PV manufacturers are forced to expand to the downstream that is thought to be of high benefit. It will be the essential quality for the participants to adapt quickly to the changing market conditions due to the sudden change of policy, trade action or competitive strategy.

solar power UK 2012
date:2-4,Octomber
location：Birmingham，UK
booth：D46

CanSIA believes that this will make positive effect on the micro FIT and FIT plans.

The main amendment is as following:

Ratify the 50MW microFiT projects and 200MW FIT project, OPA will strive to start before the end of this month, and later release specific information.

The terms of the contract termination is changed back to the FiT 1.0 version, and resolves other financial terms of the ambiguity in the contract.

Introduce the Priority row sub-category, the pv inverter  project which filed before July 5 of 2011 will get a score and the after application of 0.5 points. These scores can be added to the permission scores the project has received.

The OED will organize a work team to provide the standard suggestion of the FIT for the solar system, which includes the CanSIA, will be the lead in the work team.

CanSIA said: ‘The most difficult period has passed. FIT and MicroFIT plans will benefit the whole state and industry. Although the new policies improve the access standard of the FIT and reducing the subsidy level, but it can help the solar industry to be more sustainable, transparency and steady.’

In the proposal presented to the government last May, NREB suggested that the FIT of solar power to be 0.43 USD/kWh. The ERC executive director Francis Saturnino Juan said: ‘adopting lower FIT is to attract investments while reducing the effect of the FIT on the power pv inverter price. This is a win-win solution.’

Meanwhile, the government plans to tilt to the Capacity Factor power technology so as to ensure that only the power ways with high efficiency can get the subsidy.

ERC adopts the way NREB recommended to calculate the Feed-in tariff, including considering many renewable energy power technology of promotion cost, capacity factor and investment rate of return.

According to the internal return rate 16.44% calculated by ERC FIT, if considering the solar power inverter factors of the rising oil price, the internal return rate will able to be over 17%.

The FIT plan of Philippines will be amended every three years. If the planned installation goal is finished during the plan period, the FIT also can be amended forward. The Philippines government feels optimistic with the push effect of the policy on the investment.

As a result, the FIT carried from November 1^st in UK is as following:

The under carrying FIT-cut news of the project between 0 and 50 kW is due to the unsatisfactory data of the installation projects. This is the consequence of the lower FIT released in August.

As the FIT reduced from 0.21 pound/kWh by 0.16 pound/kWh, the installation decreased 87%. The new carried FIT of 0.1544pound/kWh will reduce 65% of the FIT carried in the former 6 months.

Although the FIT has been done a significant reduction, the UK market still remains strong. It has installed 260MW in Q3.

The large-scale solar inverter project has experienced a significant revival under the support of the Renewable Obligation, RO. The Bill supports the projects above 5MW. The UK government claim recently to keep the support for the large-scale solar project till April, 2013 and will seek further support for solar technology in the future.

The decline of the European FIT will be good to the solar power inverter industry chain transferred to China, which is helpful to the Chinese manufacturers and indicts the re-integration of industry technology and the capital around the world.

PV inverter is the core rate adjust component of the PV system and occupies the system proportion between 10% -- 15% that means it has higher technological content.

It is expected that the PV inverter industry will still keep in the high benefit period in the future years. As more and more competitors enter the PV industry, the margin has declined. But thanks to the increase of total installation capacity, the PV industry still keeps growth with high speed. Brand, technology, service and the channels have been the ways to victory.

According to the PV tracking report of IHSiSuppli Company, as the two main solar market stop increasing or reduce the FIT, the global PV inverter market reduced a little in 2011, while the growth of other districts limited its decline.

The shipment of inverters this year is expected to be increased, which will be 5% to 23.4GW and continues to expanse in the following three years. The statistics shows that although the sales will continues to decrease, the decline will be reduced by 3% and following it will recover increasing with the push of new pv inverter market. It will increase by 20% till 2014.

Although the price of modules keeps decrease, IMS Research has the confidence in the price of August. The industry prospects that the price of PV inverter modules will increase 0.3%.

However, different module manufacturers think different. The price the Integrators prospected will be a little decrease, while the distributors think the price will be a little increase.

‘The benefit of modules suppliers is little, which part of them is already negative. Whether the suppliers can reduce the price decides on whether the cost contracture can be changed fundamentally.’ said Sam Wilkinson.

According to the report, with the pull of German demand, the crystal PV modules purchasing price increased 3% in July. However, this is because that Germany will change the FIT. The developers need to install system before June 30^th as the distributors can raise the PV  inverter sales price.

With the end of the German FIT adjustment, the demand of European is bearish. Therefore, the module price of July reduced 2.4%. Among it, the Chinese module price reduced 3%. The Western price reduced over 5%.

After the module price kept steady in June, it reduced again in July. The main reason is that the demand of main markets is lower. Wilkinson said that although a few companies have withdrawn the market, the production of the modules is far more than demand. The war of PV module price will further deterioration.

In order to promote communication and cooperation among the staff, the Omnik New Energy Co., Ltd. held a barbecue in the Shahu Ecological Park. The barbecue was organized by the Marketing Dept, and all the departments took part in it, 72 participants in total. It started from 5:00 pm, and ended successfully at night, lasting more than four hours.

During the event, the departments worked together and highly cooperated. No distance, no strangeness, the Omnik people gathered around the barbecue, eating and drinking, talking and laughing. What a high night. Particularly to mention, the Marketing Department played an important role in the preparation, contacting site, arranging route, communicating participants, buying tools and so on.

  Sunset glow fading, the barbecue ended successfully.

The authority people among the PV industry calculated that during the transition phase, for the new registered systems, even 0.7 billion is not enough. It is expected that other systems will register and only this can get the funds. The funds have divided into many aspects. The first company’s registered capital is 0.14 billion and valid for six months. The second on is 0.12 billion and valid for the following six months. All the other parts will be installments, valued 0.08 billion Euros till pay off all the pv inverter capital.

The new Bill has set strict registration obligations. Except for the completely purified 50kW roof PV power project, including the project over 20kW need registration. However, the projects below 20kW and the owner can be free from registration with giving up 20% of the tariff subsidy. And so do the equipments installed on the public facilities.

EuPD Research said, ‘Before the formal start or if the goal of government is to bear the consequence, then in the coming weeks will figure out if the capital of Conto Energia is empty.’

Besides, if there is an only one company SolarWorld proceeding, his capacity can’t occupy the 25% of the whole capacity of the EU. Threrfore, the proceeding is not legal.

After they have raised the proceeding, The Chinese PV Power inverter Union four leads of Yingli, Suntech, Trina and Artes have had a conference. The conference has attracted strong attention of the media.

Different with the former two conferences, the leader of four companies didn’t attend. The meeting was host by legal affairs director of Yingli Chen Zhuo. And the speak of Wang Yi was also tough. After the meeting, there was no time for interview. Chen Zhuo said any questions can be discussed in private. This shows that the present period is sensitive.

The other information passed is that the war is coming. In the meeting, the companies invoke the Chinese government to adopt necessary and decisive measures to protect the legal rights of the Chinese PV industry in the global market. From the view of the Chinese government, it is most possibly for the government to take corresponding retaliatory measures if the European Union made the wrong decision.

In 2011, 57% of the global panels are made in China. Taiwan is in the second place and occupied 11% share. While the biggest installation solar pv power market German, the panel production is only 7%. China has exported the PV products about 35.8 billion. The 60% about 20 billion goes to the European market. The figure is 4% of the Chinese and European total trade amount. However, the European export to China also covers the areas of equipment, cars, planes, luxury and so on.

So far, Omnik has researched and developed PV inverter including single-phrase inverters of 1.5k-TL,2k-TL,3k-TL,4k-TL,5k-TL and three-phrase inverters of 13k-TL,17k-TL,20k-TL. In order to be convenient for our customers, with the efforts of Omnik R&D department, we published the monitoring app Omnik Solar.

The introduction of Omnik Solar makes customers monitor their inverters' work state with mobile phone anywhere and anytime.

There are two ways to install the App. The first way is to search key words Omnik or solar, inverter, PV, plant, monitor in the App store, then you can find it. The other one is to search and download it in ITunes if you have installed an ITunes. And sync it to you phone.

Go ahead and download the Omnik Solar app on Google Play. Enjoy your solar life.

The report named Global PV, monitoring: Technologies, Markets and Leading Players, 2012-2016 is released by GTM Research and SoliChamba Consulting. The report includes the market share in the different countries of companies and the market prospect of the countries buy 2016. Meanwhile, the report gives the statistics of main 20 PV monitoring system companies, including Solar-log, meteocontrol, skytron energy, Power-One and Sunpower.

Monitoring system technology is one of the key technologies to ensure the normal operation of power station. However, as the start-up capital occupies little of the project total capital, this part has been locked of attention for a long time. Who enter into the monitoring system market include pv inverter manufacturers, the suppliers of independent monitoring system and the project developer. They co-integrate and manage the software and hardware products needed by the operation of power station. It is prospected that the scope of PV monitoring system market will reach 50GW. This refers great business opportunity. However, the European companies have the lead position in this market.

‘In order to revive confidence of photovoltaic industry and solve the great demand for power, the government doubled the former goal. They plan to install 50GW power system before 2020.’ IMS Research senior market analyst Xie Feng said, ‘As the FIT plan ended, the government has transferred clear supporting signal. As long as China can keep the current pv inverter installation speed, we can achieve the goal.’

Chinese PV manufacturers develop difficult in the fierce international competition. In the first half year of 2012, with the reducing of the subsidies, the American anti-dumping had the preliminary result. The European manufacturers have raised the application of anti dumping to the UN. The production of Chinese manufacturers has been at a standstill. Although part of manufacturers has kept the reasonable production level, most of them have stopped production. The average operating rate in the second quarter of 2012 has lower than half.

The GW level inverters’ market share is expected to be doubled in two years. Experts prospect that the demand change of Chinese market will be similar to the European. The roof solar power inverter projects will adopt extensive use of small three-phrase inverters.

After the NREB of Philippine raised the suggestion to the government, the ERC of Philippine has officially approved the FIT plan. The FIT for solar power is $0.23/kWh and the scale of system and the solar power technology adopted.

In the recommendation presented to the government in the May of last year, the FIT the NREB suggested is$0.43/kWh. For this, the executive director of ERC, Francis Saturnino Juan, said, ‘ECR adopting the lower FIT is to attract pv inverter investment with reducing the effect of the FIT on the electricity prices. This is a win-win program.”

Meanwhile, the government plans to tilt to the power technology with capacity factors in order to ensure that only the high efficiency power ways can get the FIT.

The ERC adopted the way NREB recommended to calculate the tariff, including considering the promotion cost of various renewable energy power technologies, capacity factors and the rate of return on investment.

According to the 16.44% internal return rate calculated by ERC, if considering the factors of rising oil price, the internal return rate may higher than 17%.

The FIT of Philippine will be revised every three years. If the installation goal s made by the energy department is completed during the plan period, the FIT will be adjusted in advance. The Philippine government is optimistic with the investment stimulating effect of the FIT policy.

More important is that these temporary solar equipment installation figures show that in the UK (0-10KW) of installed capacity over the first trigger point of the Government of 100MW. This means that, on November 1, in the import tariff rate of 0-4KW government tariffs on solar power feed-in tariff policy will be reduced by 3.5% to 4-10KW installation.

In the British weekly statistics department announced the installation data, temporary data, therefore, the entire PV industry need to wait until the results of the official final statistics for November 1, the statistical results of the final release will be the development of solar inverter the monthly solar power feed-in tariff tax point basis.

A substantial increase in tariff (FIT) in the UK photovoltaic installation rate prior to the deadline, although the ups and downs, but the entire solar photovoltaic industry has been suffering from numerous ups and downs, which in the past 18 months, FIT program all too familiar scene. Greg Barker, the minister said he would prefer the introduction of new descending fitting model to coordinate energy and climate change, and the photovoltaic industry survive the current bust cycle.

However, the British critics have pointed out that the surge in the August 1, the expected PV installation proved that England's current monthly decline model will only accelerate the PV industry boom and bust ups and downs cycle. The solar inverter energy industry will wait for the bait breath to see how to install the rate of recovery from the August 1, because it looks increasingly likely, I believe in November, will become clearer.

The series has the following characteristics:
1, the maximum efficiency can reach 98.2%, European efficiency of 97.8%;
2, two MPPT tracking, the tracking accuracy up to 99.9%;
3, IP65 design of product can meet the requirements of normal operation under the variety of evil conditions of the outdoor;
4, DC switch integrated design, to address security issues for users;
5, the communication uses a flexible input and output connections, support RS485, Ethernet and USB communication interfaces;
6, transformless and high power-intensive design, make the product lighter, easier to install.

In addition, the wireless monitoring equipment，Omnik wifi/GPRS kit, will be at the show which will bring you new surprise.

The visitors at the show will see the small power system via a variety of monitor equipment monitoring a single inverter which is generating electricity. And it can also give your spot to experience the fun of WiFi, GPRS, PMB and other monitoring equipment to bring you.

The Omnik will provide you with the highest quality of exhibits, the best furnishings, the most intense feelings and the most attentive service. The public are welcome to visit and communicate.

date:13-15,Jun,2012
location:Munich, Germany
booth:C4.137

date:16-18 May.2012
location:shanghai
booth:N4-812&813

Local and remote monitor network can be easily setup with optional RS232, RS485, ETHENET, GPRS or WIFI interface. Also, you can design and monitor your PV system using our PV system design software and monitor website.

solar inverters

>> Omniksol-1.5k-TL/2.0k-TL

>> Omniksol-3.0k-TL/4.0k-TL

>> Omniksol-13k-TL/17k-TL/20k-TL

PV inverter china manufacturers

>> Why choose Omnik New Energy?

However, this message has just announced, there was news of the Japanese media said the Sharp company forecast fiscal 2011 performance loss will venture the highest since the 290 billion yen to revive the LCD panel business, Sharp plans commissioned by the Taiwan electronic equipment manufacturers Hon Hai Group to establish a capital business relationship.

March 27, Sharp announced in Japan, Taiwans Hon Hai Group invested 5.2 billion yuan, the acquisition of approximately 10% of the shares in Sharp, becoming the largest shareholder in Sharp. Small profit margins of more and more blunt edge, Gou For outside the foundry model, open up a new path with the intention of more and more obvious, The Gou want out of the plight of others to do the wedding dress, a mode change.

So, seeking to become a necessity.

The spoiler PV industry

Last year, Hon Hai was established in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, Fu Yu Energy Technology (Funing) Co., Ltd., an initial investment of $ 30 million, the production of solar cells and modules. Previously, Terry Gou and the largest polysilicon enterprises GCL joint venture between the Datong new energy projects, plans to invest 90 billion yuan, the two projects together, Gou planned investment in the Mainland photovoltaic field over one hundred billion yuan. The Kuok advance the move of the photovoltaic industry, the industry as a "spoiler" of billions of investment, will no doubt bring a major reshuffle of the photovoltaic industry.

This reporter has learned that the profit margin of the upper reaches of the PV industry, polysilicon is much higher than the downstream component companies. Some downstream component companies also are working to expand upstream, in order to reduce costs, improve margins. Foxconn does not get involved in the upstream, but engaged in a lot of manpower and equipment assembly project, Foxconns core strengths. GCL, it will be the industrial chain of photovoltaic industry is almost completely covered.

IMS Research, a senior analyst said, and great was the price pressure, with the entire PV industry gain a competitive force suppliers to focus on reducing costs. In the past two years, large-scale photovoltaic power generation component suppliers are committed to 100% vertically integrated business, and the rapid expansion of its own wafer production capacity. As silicon spot price fell more than the price of polysilicon, many suppliers have found they can be less than the internal production price procurement of silicon wafers, thereby reducing internal production.

The agency estimates that by the end of 2012, wafer average price will be a year-on-year fell 25%. Polysilicon prices will accelerate the decline, down 33 percent over the same period.

In addition to helping the local job creation "photovoltaic power plants can also 376 local users with independent power enough throughout the year," the KCEC CEO Luis Reyes said.

This system is a 1.5 MW DC single axis tracking solar photovoltaic system consists of 5,280 blocks of photovoltaic components. When working at full capacity will generate about 1.25 megawatts of AC power, the expected annual generation capacity will be more than 2.9 million kilowatts hours. After the completion of the power station, photovoltaic array covering an area of more than 15.5 football fields, to reduce carbon emissions equivalent to planting 221 acres of woodland.

The new PV array, known as the "RCCLAAmalia solar arrays, is granted a place on the morning celebration located Stowe mountain.

The implementation of the project from the multi-joint efforts: the the RioCostilla Cooperative Livestock Association (RCCLA) - number of ancestors living in this remote region, and allow farmers to install photovoltaic arrays in this; KitCarson Power Cooperation - a self-state-owned companies to provide electricity to the region since 1944, currently ranked second in the national solar electricity consumption; Virginia, Washington gas energy systems, Inc., will own and operate the PV system; Maryland standard solar installation construction, and project management of the paradise power company in taos, New Mexico government and Amalia construction companys support.

The administering states that the accepted aldermanic access appear solar installations has not generated abundant accumulation to accomplish it abundant of a financially advantageous investment. In an attack to absolve the cuts, the government said it does not wish to impede advance of the industry and wishes to abate its assurance on alien deposit fuels, but renewable activity needs to be redeveloped to aerate economical and ecology allotment for the country.

After all, the government claims, renewable activity assembly targets accept in fact been revised upwards from 26% to 32-35%.

The “generous” incentives provided by the antecedent legislation did not yield into application that the amount of renewable activity technology is in aciculate decline. However, the abridgement of able planning mechanisms resulted in a accelerated advance of installed accessories costing the tax payer over 9 actor per year, of which solar makes up 65%.

Larger systems will a lot of acceptable be larboard out of the fifth Conto Energia, with antecedence accustomed to residential and automated self-consumption systems. A six-month annals for PV systems over 12 kW will be introduced.

Photon International letters that several solar companies and associations accept planned a affirmation on April 18, in foreground of the Italian Parliament.

Please bang actuality for the official presentation by the Italian Ministry of Industry and the latest abstract of the decree, accepted in its anatomy but not in its abstracts by the Italian Ministry of Environment

The inverter is the direct current into alternating current device can improve the efficiency of the motor rotation, and therefore commonly used in home appliances and other fields, the process of the solar power generated by DC access to the AC power line, the inverter is also indispensable devices.

The development of the inverter using silicon-carbon compounds as semiconductor components, materials, instead of the previous silicon. The power conversion efficiency would be enhanced in order to achieve miniaturization. Experiment, the success of the inverter continuous motor drive output power of 15 kilowatts, the power equivalent to 15 times more than the home air conditioning.

Adjustment is the shuffle

As in recent years, the fastest-growing new energy, solar power because it has a more stable, more durable, the layout is simple and convenient maintenance and so the strong support of the Governments of many countries around the world focus on the development of the industry. Which, in recent years, China is developing rapidly, jumped for the worlds largest photovoltaic manufacturing industry gathering places and photovoltaic products exporting countries. But in many parts of the photovoltaic blind construction and extensive expansion, just a few years had been more serious overcapacity. Combined with European countries to cut subsidies, photovoltaic application of positive hit, leading to the recent export of component-based PV companies in China have reduced the investment to slow down expansion plans.

Studies have shown that the domestic component manufacturers operating rate is only 50% of the end of last year, the industry has entered a deep reshuffling stage, there have been small and medium-sized component manufacturers cut transition.

Accompanied by the spread of the global financial crisis, a promising sunrise industry has experienced a thrilling roller coaster, and immediately fell into a trough. The future trend of divergent views.

Photovoltaic power generation: the future direction of

Number of industry experts said that although the PV industry is currently facing industrial restructuring did not affect the pace of development of the industry as a whole. According to the World Energy Organization, the European Joint Research Centre and the European Photovoltaic Industry Association predicted that the world of photovoltaic power generation in 2020 will total electricity 1%, by 2040 photovoltaic power generation will account for 20% of global generating capacity, this projection the next few decades the global solar PV products up to 25% -30% compound annual growth rate. Short term, according to the 2011-2015 forecast released by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, 2015 the worlds new photovoltaic generating capacity will reach 43.9GW.

Policies favorable circumstances ,2011-2015, the country is expected to add PV installed capacity will be increased year by year.

From the direction of a large, clear the PV industry development prospects Shenfudiaozheng do not change the long-term vitality of the emerging industries; decline in product prices will power cost reduction, long-term positive development of the industry.

Or the investment opportunities

The photovoltaic industry in China over the past decade the rapid development, has formed a complete industrial chain of solar photovoltaic, industrial layout, Chinas Yangtze River Delta, Bohai Sea, the Pearl River Delta and central and western regions has been formed distinctive regional industrial clusters.

date:20-22 March .2012
location:exCel london
booth:N3903

First Solar designed, developed and constructed both projects, using its thin-film PV modules. The sites commenced commercial operation in February 2012. Owner and operator of the projects is NextEra Energy Canada, NextEra Energy Resources’ subsidiary. The power generated will be sold to Ontario Power Authority under its Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP).

“We are pleased to have completed the acquisition of our initial Canadian solar projects,” said NextEra Energy Resources’ senior vice president of development, Mike O’Sullivan. “Solar power will help promote a clean-energy economy in Ontario and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.”

In what are remarkable figures, exports of photovoltaic modules remained relatively flat, while those consumed in Japan have increased from 311.54 megawatts (MW) in the third quarter (Q3) of 2010, to 406.33 MW in Q3 2011. Additionally, while in previous years quarterly growth of domestic module sales has been modest and inconsistent, in 2011, sales grew from 258.61 MW in Q1, to 347.7 MW in Q2 and over 400 MW in the Q3.

Andrew DeWit from Tokyo’s Rikkyo University told pv magazine that he’s not surprised at all by the rapid growth in domestic photovoltaic sales. "In fact, if the figures extended to an even more recent period [Q4 2011 and Q1 2012] then I think we would see even more impressive developments."

The JPEA figures also reveal that most of the module sales have been made to supply the residential market. In Q3 2011, of the 406.33 MW of modules sold domestically, 331.06 MW went to supply residential installations. This, DeWit said, is more surprising. "Just about every day you read an article in the Japanese press on a mega-solar project. The focus on what is happening is not on the more distributed end."

Since the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown in March 2011 and the radioactive contamination scares that followed, the Japanese public has become increasingly cognoscente of issues surrounding power supply and renewable energy. DeWit believes that additionally, issues like security of supply and a revamped feed-in tariff (FIT) have attracted an enormous amount of attention to photovoltaics in the country.

"It has encouraged local governments in particular to ramp up their subsidy programs, to foster the further diffusion of solar in local communities. The local governments learned last year that you can’t rely on centralized energy supply and transmission and they’ve also become very keen to exploit the local business opportunities that have been expanded as a result of the FIT as well as the concerns about nuclear."

DeWit reported that all but two of Japan’s nuclear reactors have been shut down and, while debate rages over the closure of the final plant, he is confident that it also will close in the coming months. "You couldn’t have foreseen a year ago that this would happen. This country may go through the summer, probably without any nuclear capacity, a totally unthinkable scenario. So concerns about power are driving people’s decisions and driving local governments' purchasing and subsidy decisions."

The quarterly increase means full-year shipments are expected to be in the range of 1,316MW - 1,326MW, compared to prior guidance in the range of 1,200MW - 1,300MW.

"Canadian Solar continues to successfully execute on our business strategy. We are increasing shipments to customers in key markets worldwide, while at the same time aggressively reducing our manufacturing costs,” commented Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman and chief executive officer of Canadian Solar. “In the market place we are winning by stressing our global brand, product quality, high performance, reliability and customer service. We are seeing continued gains in both solar module shipments to installers and in shipments related to our expanding project business. As an illustration of our business momentum, we recently signed agreement for Canadian Solar to develop and sell 9 fully-operational and commissioned utility-scale solar projects in the Province of Ontario, which are expected to contribute to the Company's revenue and profitability between late 2012 and mid-2013."

Canadian Solar also reiterated that gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2011 remained in-line with prior guidance of 5% to 8%.

Update

According to an investor research note by Avian Securities analyst, Mark Bachman believed Canadian Solar must have had plenty of inventory on-hand to meet the stronger than expected demand from customers. Bachman also noted that the company had issued its prior guidance in late November, which should have indicated that it should have had better visibility into the order trends for the remainder of Q4.

The financial analyst believed the market share gain the revised guidance portrays would therefore be short-lived. Increased shipments were said to have been concentrated in the US and China, according to Bachman.

The information garnered could prove advantageous for stakeholders – material suppliers to final customers. More than 20 participating companies will be setting aside their differences to make PV more competitive and ensure technological progress. They will discuss common manufacturing challenges and trends in business.

Markus Fischer, director of R&D processes at Q-Cells SE and one of the working group chairs for the ITRPV, explained the goals of the roadmap, "We want to establish photovoltaics as a competitive source for electric power generation. We will only succeed, however, if our manufacturing costs are competitive as well. Then everyone will benefit — after all, solar is an environmentally-friendly, sustainable unlimited energy source."

"While the roadmap is not binding for the companies involved — it is a recommendation backed by industry leaders with a common goal of advancing the industry. The industry's competitive advantage still thrives in this roadmapping environment. We define targets and milestones, but do not specify how a company can achieve these. We prefer to describe the requirements we need to achieve them. This means that participants can choose the best method for their company but we all have a common path," Fischer explained.

At the PV Fab Managers Forum, Fischer will present the current status of the PV roadmapping efforts, the most important and pressing topics in the PV industry and the results achieved so far.

The Forum will also cover these topics: PV Market and Manufacturing Technology Outlook, Cost Reduction Potential in Cell and Module Manufacturing, Efficiency Increase Potential in Cell and Module Manufacturing, PV Standardization Update and Overview, and Total Cost of Ownership Models.

The 2012 PV Energy World exhibit will feature expert presentations and panel discussions and will be held in conjunction with the Intersolar Europe Conference, being held June 11 through 14. The conference will see topics from the exhibit discussed, kicking off with a panel discussion on electricity storage and concluding with grid stability and safety.

“What is today an energy problem could become a financial problem,” commented Industry Minister José Manuel Soria.

With the country’s generating capacity currently at around twice its peak requirements, the country has been slow to react to the explosion in solar- and combined-cycle gas-fired plant-related investments over the years. The subsidies suspension will apply only to newly commissioned solar, wind, co-generation and waste incineration plants and will not affect already-operating plants or projects that have already been approved for subsidies by the government.

“This is shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted,” said Peter Sweatman, CEO of consultant company Climate Strategy. “The risk is that Spanish firms that are recognized global leaders in renewable energy feel their position undermined by lack of domestic support.”

The country’s government is mired in controversy as it attempts to assure investors of its ability to cut the budget deficit to 4.4% of GDP in 2012, down from 8% last year. However, with 23% of its workforce unemployed, this move to cut subsidies is bound to be an unpopular one as the country’s cleantech sector is said to sustain 110,000 Spanish jobs, according to the Renewable Energy Producers Association.

“It’s clear they have to make major cuts,” said Francisco Salvador, a strategist at FGA/MG Valores in Madrid. “The government has already ruled out a significant increase in prices, so the cuts will fall in many places and the spotlight is on renewables, but not just on renewables.”

“It’s a real positive for the developers, the owners of assets, because it removes the risk of retroactive cuts,” said Sean McLoughlin, a renewable energy analyst at HSBC Plc. “The government could certainly have done that again when you think of how much it’s costing them but have decided not to. This suggests that the government is listening to the industry.”

After being defeated in the Court of Appeal, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) refused to back down, again pushing the point that its drastic feed-in tariff cuts needed to take place as soon as possible.

Owing to the current situation, the Department’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, has warned that solar installation companies should not be selling at the higher rates.

“We respectfully disagree with the judgment and are seeking permission to appeal to the Supreme Court,” he said.

"In the light of that, we cannot rule out the possibility that lower tariffs could be applied to installations which became eligible for FiTs on or after the proposed reference date. It is important that consumers are aware of this."

Many Solar Power Portal readers have written in with queries on this topic, and we would like to clarify the point: 43p is very far from guaranteed.

Government’s decision to take its appeal to the Supreme Court has given birth to yet more uncertainty. Shrouding the rates between December 12, 2011 and March 3, 2012, this uncertainty looks set to stay for a while after the Supreme Court confirmed that it can take up to a year for a case such as this to even be heard – meaning we are no closer to finding out whether the proposed cuts will go ahead as planned.

Annoying, aggravating and disappointing though this is, the fact remains: installers should now be selling at the lower rates, as outlined in the table below.

These solar power systems are expected to save the homeowners up to 50% on their energy bills. They did not specifically mention if they were referring to electricity bills only, or energy bills overall. However, in this context, energy usually means electricity.

“We’re excited to take a leading role in bringing solar power systems to the mainstream in Central Florida,” said George Glance, president of KB Home’s Central Florida division. “While many love the year-round warmth and abundant sunshine we are lucky enough to enjoy here in Florida, staying comfortable in this weather can also take a toll on our wallets when we get the monthly electric bill. Consumers who buy a Built to Order™ KB home with a standard solar power system get the value of a custom home-like experience plus the benefit of having the sun help reduce their energy bills.”

To increase customer confidence in KB Home’s setups, it also provides its “Energy Performance Guide” service, which shows monthly energy costs and how much money homeowners are saving over a typical resale house of their type.

These houses are to sell at prices starting in the low-$200,000 range. The homes can be customized to suit customers’ budgets, style, and needs. Customers can opt to have multi-purpose rooms transformed into bedrooms, home offices, and media rooms.

KB Home is one of the largest and most established home building organizations in the U.S and, by introducing this initiative, it may encourage more people to go solar. The cost of a solar setup is really just a small fraction of the cost of a home.

According to Centrosolar the company exceeded the requirements established for the standard. “These concepts, described as a lean production system, are used around the world by leading companies in many industries. The rollout of the Centrosolar Production System will help ensure the long-term efficiency and competitiveness of our company,” says Bernhard Pawlik, managing director of Centrosolar.

Centrosolar had the ISO certification performed in the course of a group certification for the entire company. The Centrosolar Sonnenstromfabrik in Wismar had already been certified in 2008, with re-certification scheduled for 2011. While the focus was previously on assessing production and production-related activities, development and sales were also included in the latest evaluation. After completing its evaluation, the VDE confirmed that all three company locations in Hamburg, Paderborn and Kempten, as well as the Sonnenstromfabrik in Wismar, meet the ISO 9001 standard.

The VDE seal of approval is recognised internationally. The general acceptance of this seal abroad helps generate sales of solar modules in neighbouring European countries. Because it is difficult to appraise a module’s quality at first glance, many customers abroad place special value on certificates and quality assessments. In addition to its quality management certification, Centrosolar Sonnenstromfabrik was already certified in 2010 for environmental management under the ISO 14001:2009 standard.

Although IMS Research is not expecting to release final figures for 2011 until next month, senior research director for PV, Ash Sharma told PV Tech that its revised forecast in November of 24GW was in the bag and wouldn’t be surprised that total installations hit 26GW given the real surge in December.

Sharma noted that IMS had felt confident of its actual published forecasts for Germany throughout the year, via its quarterly Demand Database service. In the first quarter of 2011, IMS had projected 6.8GW of installations, 8GW in Q2 and 7.3GW in its Q3 projections for the full-year.

Dr Henning Wicht, at IHS iSuppli said that revised figures of 25GW a month ago looked solid and that final figures could easily reach 26GW. One of the other key markets, Italy, could help push installs into the 26GW range as final figures could be anywhere in the 6-7GW range.

Wicht noted that demand in Germany could point to a pattern of growth across key markets and that the fundamental IIR drivers in Germany could continue with strong demand through the end of the second quarter. He wouldn’t rule-out installations in Germany reaching 4GW by the end of June when FiT regressions kick-in, mid-year.

We will have to wait for revised 2012 forecasts but the positive developments in Germany and expected 25-30% average module price declines expected in 2012 could result in continued strong installation growth.

A lethargic quarter in Germany was the main contributor as the country recorded more than 50% lower third quarter solar PV inverter revenues compared to Q3’10.

On the other hand, prices stabilised in the third quarter, a welcome relief for suppliers that have had to endure heavy price erosion since the turn of the year. Average prices are still 15% lower than in 2010, however.

IMS Research says the market was limited by the lack of activity in Germany where shipments were over 1 GW lower than in Q3’10, contributing to global solar PV inverter shipments being 8% down year-on-year. Although shipments have grown for the last two consecutive quarters, revenues decreased because of falling prices.

Even though Q3’11 solar PV inverter shipments failed to hit 2010 quarterly levels, prices stabilised during the quarter, indicating a healthier level of inventory in the market, the analyst explains.

Exchange rates were also a contributing factor to revenue and price changes in Q3: “The majority of inverters are still sold in Europe where the average price per watt stabilised last quarter if measured in Euros. However, companies from outside the Eurozone realising their revenues in dollars may still have felt the price pressure as Dollar prices fell by 5% compared to Q2’11 due to changes in exchange rates,” comments Tom Haddon, PV Market Analyst at IMS Research.

Price pressure will continue to be a prominent feature of the market for some time and it wouldn’t be wise for PV inverter suppliers to count on prices staying at this level for long.

SMA holds the fort

Despite the sluggish performance of the German solar PV inverter market in Q3, SMA Solar Technology’s market share held stable at over 30% of revenues due to an increased focus on ‘foreign’ markets.

“Whilst SMA has always been strong in its domestic market, it is now turning its attentions to the faster growing emerging markets, with the Americas becoming a larger proportion of its business. In order to maintain or increase market share this strategy will need to continue,” Haddon concludes.

The project was completed and brought into service on August 31, 2011. Final processing and payment of the purchase price, which is in the triple-digit million-euro range, as well as transfer of the corporate shares, will take place in the first quarter of 2012.

“Serenissima is an important milestone for S.A.G. Solarstrom AG, both from a technical and a sales-oriented point of view. We have connected our – to date largest – project to grid almost four months before the originally planned date, and are feeding directly into the high-voltage network via a transformer substation that we constructed ourselves. The system is demonstrating the high level of performance we expected and we have now also sold the project as planned on schedule by the end of 2011“, says Dr. Karl Kuhlmann, CEO of S.A.G. Solarstrom AG. “This is thanks to the extraordinary performance of the entire S.A.G. team. Our technical team worked tirelessly up until completion and until the photovoltaic system was connected to the electricity grid. And our sales and financing team forged ahead with the project, ignoring Sundays and public holidays in 2011, up to and including December 31“.

In the negotiations, a European financial investor was accepted over other prospective customers as a buyer for the attractive project. The sale will be concluded with the institutional investor and the corporate shares of the project company, together with their financing and purchase price payment, transferred to the S.A.G. Solarstrom Group in the first quarter of 2012.

“We spent a very long time in intensive negotiations with various prospective customers regarding the project, and even decided against certain offers“, explains Oliver Günther, Sales Director of S.A.G. Solarstrom AG. “The new Conto Energia, in particular, and the increasingly difficult general conditions in the solar industry dragged out negotiations. However, Serenissima is an extremely attractive project, so we deliberately took the time to negotiate a suitable price with the right investor. At the same time, the new Italian solar tax also needs to be taken into consideration”, Günther continues.

“The financing conditions, in particular for projects of this size, have increasingly deteriorated over the course of the year”, says Christoph Koch, Financial Director of S.A.G. Solarstrom AG. “The commitment by the Deutsche Bank to interim financing in the amount of €80 million in the middle of the financial crisis and the emerging bank crisis was really a major achievement and a mark of confidence, even though the financing costs were high and have unfortunately risen considerably due to the European debt crisis and resulting bank crisis over the course of the year“, explains Koch.

With this project, S.A.G. Solarstrom AG proved that it is can be considered one of the leading independent providers of photovoltaic systems in Europe, and with good reason. “That is why we are convinced that we will be able to maintain our market position, even in the very challenging mood of the emerging 2012“, says Dr. Kuhlmann in conclusion.

Despite the fact that inverter prices saw some stability in the third quarter, inverter ASPs remain around 15% lower than they were in 2010. Germany’s reduction in inverter shipments by over 1GW on the same period in 2010 was a major contributor in the 8% reduction in global shipments, according to IMS Research’s report.

“The majority of inverters are still sold in Europe where the average price per watt stabilised last quarter if measured in euros. However, companies from outside the Eurozone realizing their revenues in dollars may still have felt the price pressure as dollar prices fell by 5% compared to Q2’11 due to changes in exchange rates”, commented Tom Haddon, IMS Research’s PV market analyst. “Price pressure will continue to be a prominent feature of the market for some time and it wouldn’t be wise for PV inverter suppliers to count on prices staying at this level for long”.

The news is not all bad, however. Global inverter shipments increased for Q1 and Q2 of 2011, with the decline in revenue being brought about by a reduction in ASPs. Furthermore, the company is projecting inverter shipments to continue growing, passing the 25GW mark by the end of the year in response to new incentives in Asian markets and a last-minute rush to complete installs in Germany before the January 1 2012 cut in the FiT.

Further information on the inverter market shipment and revenue figures is available in IMS Research’s Quarterly PV Inverter Supply & Demand Report.

“Inverters like the PVI-4.2-OUTD-S-US have a major opportunity for cost reduction, as prices decline for copper and aluminum,” noted Kevin Keller, senior principal analyst, teardown analysis, for IHS. “These commodity metals are responsible for the bulk of the 38 pounds of weight of the PVI-4.2-OUTD-S-US. Prices already have come down from highs earlier this year and could decline more in the future.”

According to the market research firm, the most expensive component category in the PV inverter teardown was the mechanical segment, which accounted for 33.1% of the inverter’s total BOM, due to their higher use of commodity metals.

It was noted that photovoltaic inverter could reduce enclosure costs by employing lower-cost sources for heat sinks. In the case of the Aurora in the teardown, it included a machined heat sink made from extruded aluminum with an estimated cost of US$39.13, representing about 6% of the total BOM, while the enclosure of the product is made of stamped/formed aluminium, which was said to be priced at US$42.26, or 6.6% of the BOM.

The potential for cost reductions were also seen in regards to passive components. Passives represented the second highest component group expense at 29.6% of the total BOM.

“Passive costs in inverters could be reduced as manufacturers make greater use of lower-cost sources for devices like inductors,” Keller observed.

The inductors account for a significant portion of this passive expense as the the PVI-4.2-OUTD-S-US integrated two pieces of wound copper foil, double-cut C core inductors from Endela Electronics that was priced at US$72.10, or 11.2% of the overall BOM.

“Companies in the solar inverter business will have to engage in aggressive price reductions to remain competitive,” said Greg Sheppard, senior director of PV research at IHS. “With prices to decline by an average of 10 percent annually for the next several years, continued reductions in inverter BOMs will be needed to keep costs in line with pricing.”

The Aurora PVI-4.2-OUTD-S-US is intended for outdoor use and features the highest-rated maximum AC output power of 4,200 watts. According to the market research firm, surveys indicate that typical dealer prices for the Aurora PVI-4.2-OUTD-S-US range from approximately US$2,100 to US$2,600.

According to the teardown analysis the Power-One PV inverter carries a BOM of US$641.47 and when the estimated US$47.87 manufacturing and test costs are added in, the total expense to produce the inverter was said to be US$689.35.

The address allows barter to analyze assorted solar PV designs for specific locations while additionally including estimates for the aboriginal year activity production, absolute activity produced over 25 years and a clear assuming the aberration of account activity assembly over a abounding year. SolarNexus, co-developer of SolarHub, developed the SEE Address software.

“We are admiring to accept our SEE address eyes launched and accessible to serve consumers and solar installers,” said Tim Keating, SolarTech Performance Committee Chair and VP of Marketing and Field Operations at Skyline Solar. “The SEE Address has the abeyant to abate customer abashing if purchasing a solar PV system. Our next claiming will be to brainwash consumers and drive industry adoption.”

SolarTech affairs to host a webinar on January 12th to acquaint and advice barter analyze the SEE Report. Participants can assurance up for the affair here.

And analytic this riddle is far from simple. Endure December, amidst abundant fanfare, the Indian Government apparent the recipients of the aboriginal 620MW of projects in its snappily blue-blooded Jawaharlal Nehru Civic Solar Mission (JNNSM). However, in the amid 12 months, added data about this not-insignificant amount of installations accept been apparent by their absence.

A few weeks ago, the blackout was assuredly torn with the underwhelming account that added than one third of the projects handed out in the aboriginal annular of auctions were absurd to accomplish the January deadline. And account about those that would accomplish the cut was, unsurprisingly, not forthcoming. Nevertheless, governments, at both civic and accompaniment level, accept ploughed advanced with their bullish rhetoric.

Narenda Modi, Gujarat’s Chief Minister, has already claimed his accompaniment will one day become the world’s solar capital, and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy's Bharat Bhargava has added ammunition to the blaze by claiming that by 2017 accommodation could calibration 10GW.

While some would admonish adjoin such airs from a country whose absolute installations stood about about the 50MW mark in backward September, the confidence-boosting cocktail of top irradiance levels, adorable accompaniment incentives and the acceptance of the above JNNSM has apparent bourgeois forecasts befuddled out of the window.
And why not? Above industry names, such as SunEdison, juwi solar, AES Solar, Conergy, Gehrlicher Solar and Enfinity, and US development banks accept already abandoned abeyant headaches over bankability and accounts in the acceptance that India is absolutely the future.

And, acrimony aside, there are some able signs. Just endure month, Moser Baer accomplished plan on India aboriginal accession of note, a 30MW arrangement in Gunthawada, Gujarat, and added installations are on the horizon; cardinal consulting abutting Bridge to India has appear that a added 150MW is due to appear online in the next ages and a half.

Driving abundant of this advance is acceptable to be the western accompaniment of Gujarat. With the country’s fastest-growing abridgement and a acceptable feed-in tariff, Gujarat is alluringly placed to install the PV systems that will advice ballista India solar industry from accessory to above league.

Gujarat was one of the ancient states to admit PV’s abeyant and launched its solar action one year afore the JNNSM was even announced. Initially the levelized assessment of INR13.30 (US$0.33) per kWh and INR10.54 (US$0.38) per kWh for CSP over 25 years was attenuate by the JNNSM. However, the huge absorption from developers in the JNNSM led to aggressive behest for projects and a consecutive abatement in assessment rate. A abatement that took it beneath the amount in Gujarat.

Suddenly, Gujarat became a far added adorable hypothesis to developers. Longer activity timelines and a decidedly college assessment in the aboriginal 12 years affronted absorption further. In accession to Gunthawada, the accompaniment is already the area of several smaller-scale projects amid 1MW and 5MW and, if India lives up to the hype, activity sizes are acceptable to abound tenfold over the advancing years.

However, this is a big if. The next few months will acknowledge a lot about what the approaching holds for solar on the subcontinent. If January comes and goes with no apparent billow in the amount of completed projects, again the questions surrounding the industry will abide to be asked But should anywhere abutting to the appear 150MW appear online again this will go a continued way to acceptable the carper Thomases. Either way, it will be an absorbing few months.

The United Kingdom is the centre of the European PV industry market. It has the unique conditions for photovoltaic power generation, such as broad geography and good sun radiation. In order to enter this promising market, the Omnik R&D team targeted the special requirements of the local products, optimized product-related parameters and finally developed the products which completely meet the safety and reliability requirements of the UK market. With good design and excellent technology parameters, Omniksol-4K-TL successfully passed the certification testing and obtained the certificate.

TL series solar inverter, as Omnik’s classic products in small power products, is fully designed and R&D in accordance with home and commercial applications. TL series product includes 1.5kW, 2.0kW, 3.0kW, 4.0kW inverter which has outstanding features such as stable performance, high reliability and simple installation etc. Meanwhile, adopting the unique high frequency inversion technology, island protection technology and Multi-MPP tracking technology made Omnik inverters equipped with maximum efficiency of 97.4%, European efficiency of 96.6% and MPP tracking accuracy of 99.9%.

As an emerging market of photovoltaic industry, in UK the supporting strength for the PV industry is still increasing and now it is already another world PV industry center other than Germany. The acquisition of the G59 certificate makes sure that Omnik is ready for the UK market and it also has accumulated good R&D experience for the subsequent products which would be supply to the European in the near future. This would certainly speed up Omnik’s steps in the European markets.

TL series solar inverter, as Omnik’s classic products in small power products, is fully designed and R&D in accordance with home and commercial applications. TL series product includes 1.5kW, 2.0kW, 3.0kW, 4.0kW inverter which has outstanding features such as stable performance, high reliability and simple installation etc. Meanwhile, adopting the unique high frequency inversion technology, island protection technology and Multi-MPP tracking technology made our products equipped with maximum efficiency of 97.4%, European efficiency of 96.6% and MPP tracking accuracy of 99.9%.

VDE is the Authoritative Certification institute in Germany and only the inverters obtained VDE certification have the qualification to enter the German market as well as other European countries. VDE Testing and Certification Institute is a research laboratory which belongs to Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker (VDE). VDE Laboratory tests and certifies the products in accordance with the German VDE standards or European EN standard, or International Electro technical Commission IEC standards. As VDE is directly involved into the draw up of the German national standards, it is one of the most experienced European certification institutes with high reputation all over the world.

In many countries around the world, VDE certification is even more famous than their own national certifications. It is especially recognized and valued by importers and exporters. Products with VDE certification means that they have reached the international standards. Customers can completely rest assured about the products which have obtained the VDE certification.

To obtain the VDE certification, passing strict performance test in addition, the product stability also has to go through a comprehensive assessment. It means that Omnik solar inverter can completely satisfy the demands of the German solar photovoltaic (PV) grid system. The VDE certification also provides a qualification assurance for Omnik to penetrate the European market.

In order to deeply carry out the ‘Talents enforcing the power of the city’ strategy, and intensify efforts to import technological talents both from domestic and overseas, Suzhou municipal government hold the campaign of ‘SIP Fifth Annual Scientific and Technological Leading Talent’ to improve SuZhou to be a preferred and innovative city for the High-level talents. During the election, the leadership of SuZhou Science and Technology Bureau said, ‘by the successful held of last several SIP election，we attracted a large number of talents from domestic and overseas who were “air landed” in Suzhou, which has promoted the independent innovation ability of the enterprises, and also accelerated the development process of Suzhou high-tech industry.

Suzhou Omnik New Energy Co., Ltd. which under the leadership of the president Mr. Franz Zhao who is graduated from Technical University of Munich, built a high-qualified R&D team that devoted itself to the R&D and the production of solar inverters, monitoring system and photovoltaic system products and also provide a full set of application solutions for PV system. during the mere one year after the establish of the company, we have successively developed TL, TLC etc. series grid tied inverters, in which TL series inverters has already obtained several important international certifications, such as VDE, VDE-GS,G83/G59，SAA and CE etc.

In the ceremony,Mr. Franz Zhao expressed his feeling with excited tone: i will cherish the honor and try harder in the future, energetically promote the spirit of innovative industry, give full play to the leading role of talents, and try my best to make new contributions to the police of” Second Innovation, Transformation and Upgrade” for Suzhou Industrial Park.

“Propelled by residential and institutional investors who abutment blooming initiatives as able-bodied as acceptable funding, Germany has been the world’s arch country for PV installations back 2009,” said Dr. Henning Wicht, chief administrator and arch analyst for photovoltaics at IHS. “However, installations in the country adjourned in the aboriginal bisected of 2011. And while the bazaar recovered in the additional half, the access was bereft to accomplish advance for the accomplished year. Meanwhile, the Italian government’s adorable incentives additional the country’s installations massively, giving it the top position worldwide.”

The bazaar analysis close acclaimed that installations in Germany are accepted to abatement by 20% to 5.9GW in 2011, down from 7.4GW installed in 2010. Italy will become the arch installer in 2011 with an estimated 6.9GW account of PV systems installed, about bifold the 3.6GW from 2010.

Growth in accession in above arising markets included the US, China and Japan, admitting the French and UK markets aswell produced able installations figures.

According to IHS, the US is accepted to install 2.7GW in 2011, abundant college than added forecasters, which accept placed accepted installations in the arena of 1.7-2.0GW, agreement it the third better bazaar in 2011.

In fourth abode is China with accepted installations extensive 1.7GW and Japan arising already afresh with 1.3GW installed. In sixth position, according to IHS is France, estimated to accept installed 1GW in 2011.

PV pricing

The bazaar analysis close continues to accept Europe will abide a arduous ambiance in 2012. PV arrangement prices are accepted to abatement to 0.65 in March 2012, compared to prices getting offered in the third division of 2011 if ample PV systems were offered in Germany at 1.60 per watt.

According to the bazaar analysis firm, added declines in the amount of polysilicon are expected. IHS acclaimed that polysilicon has alone beneath US$30 per kilogram as of aboriginal November, 2011 and atom prices of US$20 are accessible by the March/April, 2012 time anatomy - accustomed the continuing abatement in demand.

As lower actual costs accomplish their way through to bore production, cheaper modules will be produced. However, the acute antagonism in the bazaar and the accepted crowd will aftereffect in gross accumulation margins from dent to bore assembly in the single-digit range.

With the feed-in assessment borderline fast approaching, it would appear as no abruptness to apprehend that hundreds of UK solar installers were hasty to complete projects afore Monday’s absolute point. However, if DECC endure anniversary appear a blueprint assuming that the accession abstracts had amorphous to decline, we affected that all those who were planning to install had already done so.

What we didn’t realise was that DECC had acutely fabricated a mistake, and that the abstracts had in actuality connected to ascend at an alarming rate.

The latest abstracts on the DECC website in actuality shows that a absolute of 83.121MW was added to the MCS abstracts endure anniversary (ended December 4) with 60.905MW of that absolute aural the 0-4kW bracket, equating to added than 21,000 installs.

The agnate blueprint (to the left) aswell highlights how the dip featured in endure week’s blueprint was in actuality fantastical, as install abstracts accept now connected to ascend to ability a absolute of added than 611MW of installations back the alpha of January 2011.

These abstracts are far added absolute in allegory to regulator Ofgem’s acutely out of date numbers, which affirmation that abandoned 24.874MW for the aforementioned anniversary aeon and abandoned 381.477MW for the year.

Discouragingly, Ofgem’s dried abstracts are getting best up by boilerplate press, including the BBC, as able-bodied as bazaar analysts and the industry itself, sending a actively adulterated bulletin out to the accessible en masse.

The real-time abstracts appear actuality appearance the absurd bulk of solar uptake axiomatic in the UK, with added than 83MW added endure anniversary alone, it is no abruptness the MCS website crashed.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has appear that the government is acceleration the customs for solar and added renewables from CNY0.004 to CNY0.008 per kWh. The assessment was aloft to awning the exceptional that utilities pay for renewable electricity and is able as of December 1.

The move to accession the customs amount has appreciably added the medium-term angle for solar in China and led to notable banal bazaar all-overs for Suntech, JA Solar, Yingli Green and several added Chinese PV firms. Increased developer aplomb will aswell atom added advance downstream, allowance the country move afterpiece to accomplishing its abiding renewable goals.

"This is not traveling to access the exceptional paid to renewable activity projects, although it will bifold the basin of money acclimated to abutment apple-pie energy", CIMB Research analyst Keith Li said.

The customs acceleration is the latest aldermanic admeasurement taken by the Chinese Government to advice accomplish its aggressive ambition of accretion the admeasurement of non-fossil fuels in its coal-dependent activity portfolio to 15% by 2020. In 2006, China anesthetized a renewable activity law acute ability distributors to buy all the ability generated by renewable activity projects. These regulations aswell acquiesce them to aggregate added fees if they advertise the power.

Interest in Solar Park Germany 2011 is continuing acerb according to Green City Energy. Around 180 investors accept subscribed for added than 70% of the shares, with a majority of the actual absorption already pre-booked. Solar Park Germany 2011meets the altitude for EEG accord and will advance three solar pants in Bavaria and Thuringia with a anticipation crop of 61.5% from a accumulated 6.4MW capacity.

The alignment states that as coffer costs holds the abeyant to be completed at a lower nominal absorption rate, the allotment increases in 2011 could ability 6% and 7% next year. Private investors can participate in Solar Park Germany 2011 with a minimum investment of €2,500.

"Especially in times of banking uncertainty, [offering] actual assets such as renewable activity systems are a alive another to added investment opportunities," said Marina Dietweger, arch of ecology gelanlagen at Green City Energy. "For investors, it is now to be fast," adds Dietweger. "We apprehend the closing of the armamentarium afore Christmas."

Photovoltaic research and development has been upped in recent years as the technology is considered a leading renewable consumer energy source.

In fact, reports claim photovoltaic production has doubled every two years since 2002 making it the world’s fastest-growing solar power and energy technology as a whole.

How do Solar PV systems work?
Solar PV systems work by converting light into electrical power. This is achieved using a thin layer of semi-conducting material, most commonly silicon, enclosed in a glass or plastic casing. These can range in size with small versions used on watches and calculators to a system of hundreds of square metres of solar PV panels linked up to make an array to power large buildings.

When exposed to sunlight the semi-conducting material causes electrons in the materials’ atoms to be knocked loose. The electrons that are knocked loose then flow through the material to produce an electric current known as a direct current (DC). The direct current is carried through wiring to an inverter which converts the current to alternating current (AC) so it can be connected to your property’s main electricity distribution board which either used within the home or fed back into the national grid.

Pros and Cons of Solar PV systems

Pros
You can benefit from the Governments feed-in tariff which pays a set rate per kWh of electricity generated and an additional rate for any exported back to the national grid.
The feed-in tariff is guaranteed by the Government for 25 years.
Panels designed for European countries generate power even on cloudy days, they simply need light to produce electricity.
Clean energy means you reduce your carbon emissions by up to 1 tonne per annum.
Producing your own power protects against rising energy prices.

Cons
A large area of unshaded south, south-west or south-east facing roof is required to maiximise payback. Smaller systems can be installed but payback will be longer.

Panels degrade over time by approximately 20% over 25 years, this however is taken into account in most reputable suppliers calculations. It may be beneficial to replace the inverter after 10 years to optimise power generation, although this is not essential.

You can calculate potential earnings via our Solar PV Calculator or should you have any comments or questions about PV the please contact to Sales@omnik-solar.com

Back in June, Enphase had raised nearly $14 million on a $51.5 million fundraising goal. Enphase, based in Petaluma, Calif., is looking for all sorts of capital, including equity, debt and options.

Also back in June, Enphase said it was heading to the public markets, filed an S-1 and pegged the IPO amount at $100 million. The company, founded in 2006, is a pioneer in creating a market for microinverters for solar panels, which sit at the back of each panel and convert the direct current from the solar cells into alternating current to be used on site or feed the grid. The conventional design is to pair each inverter with about a dozen solar panels instead, a centralized approach Enphase and other microinverter developers say is less effective at tracking and improving the power output of each solar panel.

Microinverters are more expensive than central inverters, so a key to popularizing them involves convincing installers that adding the cost of microinverters is a worthy upfront investment because they can get more power out of the solar electric system during its lifetime.

The company has gotten backing from big-name venture capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins, RockPort Capital Partners and Madrone Capital. Enphase had raised $104 million by the end of 2010, including a $63 million round announced in June 2010.

Though the microinverter market is new, it’s gotten a lot more crowded lately. Not only is Enphase facing startups such as SolarBridge Technologies and Enecsys, it also has to jostle with large inverter companies that launched microinverters this year, such as Power-One and SMA Solar Technology. Meanwhile, a whole set of companies is developing devices that would perform some of the functions of microinverters but leave the DC-to-AC conversion to centralized inverters. Companies in this space include two that recently raised venture capital: Tigo Energy and SolarEdge.

Enphase has to innovate faster and cut costs more quickly to stay ahead. The company launched its third-generation microinverter in June this year and has since announced new customers, including solar panel makers such as Upsolar and Hanwha SolarOne, which plan to attach microinverters to their solar panels before shipping the solar panels to their customers. Upsolar, in particular, will create a slot at the back of the panel to allow for the insertion and easier replacement of the microinverter.

Expanding its customer list and market reach is a good thing, of course, but it also means Enphase will need capital to meet demand and continue to roll out new products. It filed for an IPO at a time when the public market seemed receptive to cleantech companies. But evidence that the U.S. economy would remain weak for some time and the government debt crisis in Europe have made investors more skittish. Many solar companies’ stock prices have crashed this year. Enphase will have to wait it out.

Citing the growing, long-term demand for solar technology, ABB says its new string inverter line has a maximum capacity of 400 MW. "Like all other production plants of ABB," a spokesperson for the company tells pv magazine, "this line is designed to be modular and easy to expand so that it is possible to respond rapidly to market needs."

They go on to say that the inverters have undergone "extensive" piloting since the start of the year. In response to whether or not full capacity has already been reached, they explain, "First hundreds of inverters have been produced from this production line in June 2011, and since then, the production amount has been ramped up gradually."

When asked why Estonia had been chosen for the production line’s location, they replied that the country is known for its high-tech manufacturing. There are also said to be "technically capable" employees based there.

Although the spokesperson declined to say if any orders had yet been secured for the inverters, they did say that the product had gained "extensive interest due to the all-in-one design that incorporates monitored string fuses, monitored PV specific easy to replace surge protection devices, DC switch and detachable graphical display as standard, which make this product very attractive for installers as well as end-users." Several systems are already said to be in operation in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Meanwhile, the new engineering center has been set up to provide support to both ABB’s solar inverter business and its motors and drives factories, which are based at the same location.

ABB has further invested in a 25 kilowatt (kW) rooftop solar plant. Said to be the largest of its kind in Estonia, the company says it will be primarily used for testing and demonstration purposes. Finland-base Naps Systems Oy. designed and installed the system.

In relation to how much was invested in the three projects, and how many new jobs, if any, were created, ABB declined to comment. With regards to the 25 kW installation, the spokesperson said, "This is a small system and the cost of it was according to market prices in Germany."

At present, the production of PV modules in China has ranked first in the world and the market share is over 38%, in which More than 90% modules have been exported overseas and installed for photovoltaic power used for connected into grid. As one of the cores in the Photovoltaic (PV) grid application, the development of module products in China is very completely now. While one of the other cores of PV industry: inverter still has a great disparity with foreign advanced technology.

After all kinds of inspections carried out by Jiangsu Hunan Science and Technology Bureau, Omniksol solar inverter ranked on the innovative and high technology products list, it signs that Omniksol PV inverter has reached the advanced level domestically in the application technology, what’s more, our R&D(Research and development) and testing ability has also all-round displayed. Omnik is totally capable of simulating various standardized testing in the lab which provide a reliable guarantee for our volume production.

In the context of the country’s energy saving and emission reduction, and under the PV industry advance by leaps and bounds, Omnik is trying her best to devote our contribution to energy saving and environmental protection with our own hands.

Recently, Omnik TL series inverters successfully obtained G83 certificate，The TL series was awarded the honor again after the series of certification including VDE, VDE / GS, CE etc., This certification also laid the foundation for the Omniksol small power inverters in the British market.

TL series inverter, which as the classic products in small power products is fully design and R&D in accordance with home and commercial applications. TL series product includes TL1.5K / TL2.0K / TL3.0K / TL4.0K, with stable performance, high reliability and ease installation etc. outstanding features. Meanwhile adopting the Unique high frequency invertion technology, island protection technology and Multi-MPP tracking technology, made our products equipped with maximum efficiency 97.4%, European efficiency 96.6%and MPP tracking accuracy 99.9%.

According to the relevant regulation, solar inverter in UK, except meet the EU quality requirement, also have to meet the electric power association issued G83/1 standard.
UK distribution network management established a new technical regulation in January 2000----G83/1. In fact, this regulation is jointly published by UK SSEG Association and the British Standards Institute. By now, only certificated by G83, the solar inverter product s can enter the UK PV market.

Omnik New Energy Co., ltd is an energetic high technology enterprise whose staff are elite from home and abroad especially Germany, and have many years of experience in PV inverter industry specialized in R&D, manufacturing and marketing of photovoltaic (PV) inverters. this certification Successfully obtained which means the Omniksol serial products have to get through strict inspection and equipped with comprehensive stability, which also means a symbol that Omniksol grid connected inverter totally mean the requirement with UK PV system. It is also provided a quality assurance for our strategy for UK market!

Solarbuzz has identified 1,007 non-residential projects in China that are installed, being installed or in the development phase. Development-phase projects include tender-awarded, going through tender process, or planned without tender.

The Northwest region, where both intense solar radiation and vast amounts of land are available for utility-scale projects, currently accounts for 66% of the total China project pipeline. The top five province pipelines in megawatt terms are Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Sichuan.

Figure 1: China Non-Residential PV Project Pipeline by Region

Non-residential PV project activity, characterized by large project sizes, is now evident across 29 Chinese provinces. Projects above 1 MW are the major segment of the market in MW terms, accounting for 707 of the projects being monitored. The fast-developing non-residential segment has created an important and growing opportunity for project developers, as well as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies. Most leading project developer groups are state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with the top 10 companies accounting for 9.7 GW of the total pipeline.

The collapse in factory-gate module prices in 2011 has enabled projects to provide reasonable internal rates of return (IRR), considering the CNY1.15/kWh tariff. Installed system prices of ground-mount projects above 10 MW are now below CNY15 per watt and decreasing.

“The earlier-than-expected release of the national PV FiT policy has opened the door to explosive growth in project development activities in China,” said Ray Lian, Analyst at Solarbuzz. “The result is more tenders and an acceleration of PV orders. In 2011, the PV market in China will exceed 1.6 GW, representing over 230% growth from 2010.”

Strong growth in domestic demand provides great opportunity to Chinese module suppliers. For those projects that have selected their module suppliers, the top four suppliers in MW terms are Suntech, Yingli, GD Solar and Shanghai Aerospace Automobile Electromechanical. The leading inverter supplier is Sungrow Power Supply.

That will likely change as the regulatory and technical kinks are worked out. To prepare for the future, NRG Energy announced on Monday it is forming a company with the University of Delaware called eV2g, to commercialize the technology that will allow electric vehicle owners to sell back to the grid.

“As more electric vehicles hit the road and charging stations -- such as those provided by NRG’’s eVgo network in Texas -- continue to proliferate, EV-to-grid technology is the next logical step in the electrification of our transportation network,” said Denise Wilson, President of NRG’s Alternative Energy Services.

For now, there is no firm pilot scheduled -- and there are no commercially available EVs that can do what eV2g envisions. The technology will initially be tested with fleet vehicles. Although it’s still early days, Wilson said that more than 90 percent of EV drivers in the Dallas area had signed up with NRG Energy’s eVgo subscription charging network and the next step is to provide these drivers with ways to get more out of their car.

For a utility or ISO to get value out of an EV battery, it needs a whole group, rather than just one sole participant, which is why fleets seem like the natural starting point for testing. In the early stages, coordinating with just one person who manages the fleet is also easier than herding 50 individual drivers.

In the U.S., none of the EVs on the market have the technology to sell power off of the battery back on to the grid, although many carmakers are expected to have that feature around 2012 or 2013, according to Willett Kempton, a professor at the University of Delaware who has developed V2G technology. In other countries, like Japan, the technology will be available as soon as this year, according to The New York Times.

If it all sounds very familiar, it is. Nuuve, a company also spun out of University of Delaware and testing in Denmark, is piloting about 30 cars to sell power back to the grid. Nuvve’s server is the arbiter between the EV batteries and the power market through the system operator. In fact, Nuuve is the international version of eV2g. They are both commercializations of the same technology from Kempton and his team at Delaware. Individual carmakers, like Nissan, are also developing systems to control the power flow back to the grid.

When EVs were first coming on the market, some experts speculated that charging and draining the car to sell power back to the grid would slash the battery life, and carmakers would possibly negate battery warranties for consumers who signed up for V2G programs. But Kempton is confident that his team’s patented technology allows for power flows that won’t affect the lifespan of the battery. “We’d like to see some controls on the car and some on the charger, and then most of the work is done at a central system,” he said.

Even if the carmakers are on board, there is an issue of financial compensation. The regulatory structure currently doesn’t allow individual consumers to play in wholesale markets using their car batteries. But grid operators are “wildly enthusiastic” about this technology, Kempton said, and so it is likely that regional and federal regulatory bodies will work out pricing schemes in coming years.

Kempton said that as the markets stand now, a car could hypothetically make enough money selling power back to the grid to pay for its fuel costs across its lifetime. However, even more money could be made in ancillary markets, such as frequency regulation -- although that would take changes in grid-level regulation, as well. (For example, even demand response’s payscale and the markets it can participate in varies in each transmission region.)

NRG Energy and the University of Delaware know that it is early days and the first step will be to identify fleets that want to take part in the pilots. Wilson said they hope to have that announcement by the end of the year. “We will get proof of concept done and then take it to the next level,” said Kempton. Apparently, having a cash-back car in your garage is still a while away.

Leading the way was the U.S. solar photovoltaics (PV) market, which installed 314 megawatts in the second quarter, 69 percent more than the same period last year and 17 percent more than the first quarter of 2011. The U.S. remains poised to install 1,750 megawatts of PV in 2011, double last year's total and enough to power 350,000 homes.

"The second quarter data illustrates that the U.S. solar industry continues to be one of the fastest growing in America," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of SEIA. "More than 100,000 Americans are employed in solar, twice as many as in 2009. They work at more than 5,000 companies, the vast majority being small businesses, across all 50 states."

The utility and commercial market segments grew 37 percent and 22 percent respectively in the second quarter. The residential PV segment, however, stuttered for the second consecutive quarter, installing 60 megawatts, a 5.7 percent drop over last quarter. The U.S. Solar Market Insight report predicts greater traction for the residential market, however, in the second half of 2011 and into 2012, as residential solar-leasing business models expand nationwide.

Figure: U.S. PV Installations, 2010-Q2 2011

Source: U.S. Solar Market Insight: 2nd Quarter 2011

In the concentrating solar market, including both concentrating solar power (CSP) and concentrating PV (CPV) technologies, over 600 megawatts are now under construction in the U.S. The U.S. concentrating solar pipeline now holds more than 7,000 megawatts (enough to power 1.4 million homes), of which more than 4,000 megawatts of projects have signed power purchase agreements with utilities.

While U.S. solar is on track for a banner year overall, the market does face a number of potential challenges in 2012 and beyond that that could stunt the type of growth seen over the past year and a half.

"The potential expiration of the 1603 Treasury program, along with current malaise in major markets such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, threatens to slow growth in 2012," said Shayle Kann, Managing Director of Solar at GTM Research. "Still, with increasing market diversity and the continued emergence of the utility-scale solar market, we anticipate that the U.S. market share of global installations will triple over the next four years."

The overall solar story remains very positive.

"The dynamic second quarter growth is a result of increased competition in the solar market, competition that drove down the price of solar panels by 30 percent since the beginning of 2010," added Resch. "This is good news for residential and business customers as solar becomes more affordable every day."

The U.S. Solar Market Insight: 2nd Quarter 2011 report is part of an annual subscription that provides the most relevant, solar-specific analysis to solar PV and concentrating solar (CSP and CPV) professionals each quarter. U.S. solar heating and cooling data is collected and reported annually in the Q4 report.

The September 2011 edition of the United States Deal Tracker database released by Solarbuzz this week identifies 1,865 non-residential projects totaling 25.9 GW either installed, being installed or in their development phase since January 1, 2010. Development phase projects include pre-RFP, going through the RFP process, or planned without RFP.

California currently accounts for 61% of the total US project pipeline, stimulated by the state’s aggressive 33% Renewable Portfolio Standard target, and benefiting from the recent trend of solar projects reallocated from concentrated solar power to Pv. The top six state pipelines in megawatt terms are California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, New Jersey, and New Mexico; in total, 44 states now contribute to the pipeline.

Figure 1. US Non-Residential PV Project Pipeline by State
http://www.omnik-solar.com/upFile/fckImg/20110919084244113.png

Utility-driven project activity is now evident across 35 states, while other non-residential projects below 1 MW remain an important segment of the market, accounting for 771 projects being monitored. The fast-developing non-residential segment has created an important and growing opportunity for project developers, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies. The top 12 project developers currently account for 51% of the total pipeline.

The collapse in US factory-gate module prices over the past four months is only now starting to impact utility project prices, much more than system sizes below one megawatt. One-fifth of the installed system prices above one megawatt are now $3.75 per watt STC DC (Standard Test Conditions, Direct Current) or below.

As the workshop of the world, China has used cheap labour and state support to build a solar industry from scratch in just over a decade as part of a broader strategy to move up the manufacturing value chain from cheap toys and clothes.

China is the world's second biggest oil consumer, and polluting fossil fuels account for 90 percent of its total energy use, but the country is making large strides forward in clean energy.

Analysts say Chinese firms now have 70 percent of the growing global market in solar panels, thanks to aggressive pricing and the collapse of three US competitors in the last two months.

"The position of Chinese players has certainly been enhanced this year," said Tang Xiaodong, a Shanghai-based analyst at independent investment advisory firm CEBM.

"Lower costs are the direction of the industry and the advantages of Chinese firms on this front have been manifested more clearly."

China's solar panel prices have fallen to around $1.2 per watt of generation, down from about $1.7 last year and much lower than the global average of about $2.0 in 2010.

But the downward price spiral has hurt revenues across the industry, and Chinese companies are themselves feeling the pain.

"Everyone is facing falling prices, increasing inventories and dire straits," said an official at Yingli Green Energy, one of China's biggest solar companies, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Critics argue that Chinese companies have unfair advantages in the form of access to cheap capital from China's state-run banks.

However, they are not alone in receiving government assistance -- the latest US solar firm to file for bankruptcy was Solyndra, which had a $535 million loan guarantee from President Barack Obama's administration.

It joined Evergreen Solar, once listed on the Nasdaq exchange, and high-profile Intel spin-off SpectraWatt.

But even before the collapse of those three US companies, China was already home to the world's largest producer of solar panels, Suntech.

"There is a periodic murmur from industry, trade groups and elements in the US government that unfair subsidies in other countries put the US at a distinct disadvantage in the solar industry," said US-based analysis firm GTM Research in a recent report.

China's Suntech, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, counters such criticism by saying consolidation of the emerging industry was natural.

"The recent high-profile bankruptcies of innovative solar enterprises are unfortunate," Suntech said in a statement to AFP.

"However, competition among aggressive and innovative companies is critical to driving efficiency, productivity, and industry growth."

Chinese companies are almost solely focused on exports, with as much as 95 percent of production sold overseas according to some estimates, and they have responded to falling prices for solar panels by ramping up shipments.

But analysts expect domestic demand for solar products to rise with the introduction of a new national "feed-in" tariff -- a price the government guarantees to pay to producers of solar power feeding into the grid.

"The days of China's PV (photovoltaic) production being purely for export are coming to an end," GTM Research said, referring to solar power technology.

September 12, 2011—Large cuts in factory gate module prices over the summer have resulted in a significant increase in photovoltaic (PV) project development activity in the US. After standing at 17 gigawatts (GW) two months ago, the US non-residential pipeline has now increased to 24 GW.

The September 2011 edition of the United States Deal Tracker database released by Solarbuzz this week identifies 1,865 non-residential projects totaling 25.9 GW either installed, being installed or in their development phase since January 1, 2010. Development phase projects include pre-RFP, going through the RFP process, or planned without RFP.

California currently accounts for 61% of the total US project pipeline, stimulated by the state’s aggressive 33% Renewable Portfolio Standard target, and benefiting from the recent trend of solar projects reallocated from concentrated solar power to Pv. The top six state pipelines in megawatt terms are California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, New Jersey, and New Mexico; in total, 44 states now contribute to the pipeline.
Figure 1. US Non-Residential PV Project Pipeline by State

Utility-driven project activity is now evident across 35 states, while other non-residential projects below 1 MW remain an important segment of the market, accounting for 771 projects being monitored. The fast-developing non-residential segment has created an important and growing opportunity for project developers, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies. The top 12 project developers currently account for 51% of the total pipeline.

The collapse in US factory-gate module prices over the past four months is only now starting to impact utility project prices, much more than system sizes below one megawatt. One-fifth of the installed system prices above one megawatt are now $3.75 per watt STC DC (Standard Test Conditions, Direct Current) or below.

“As one of the largest distributors in Italy, our company must be at all times first in line with the most innovative PV technologies. We therefore see our partnership with SolarEdge as important, providing us with this innovative solution that maximizes energy throughput while enhancing many additional benefits“, says Gert Gremes, CEO at Tecno Spot.

July 27, 2011?Asia Pacific photovoltaic markets are set to grow rapidly and are projected to account for approximately one-quarter of global demand by 2015, up from 11% in 2010, according to the latest Asia Pacific Major PV Markets [1] report from Solarbuzz. The top five markets in this region?China, Japan, India, Australia, and South Korea?are projected to account for 3.3 GW of demand in 2011, with China and Japan leading the region.

Each major Asia Pacific country market is currently undergoing significant alterations to its policy structure. While China, India and Australia are building on-grid markets for the first time, Japan and South Korea face policy transitions that are re-stimulating their domestic demand over the next two years. Following the establishment of a manufacturing base that now accounts for approximately 50% of global production, China is stimulating its domestic demand through both national and provincial programs. This will cause China?s market to expand in 2011 by up to 174% over its 2010 level.

Market growth expectations are high for the region, China and India in particular, as they each have multi-gigawatt project pipelines. However, the largest challenge facing many of these projects is the need to secure financing amidst a still evolving policy and regulatory environment,? said Craig Stevens, President of Solarbuzz. ?If these policies are successful in delivering the projected growth for the Asia Pacific region, it will help offset the impact of incentive cuts across Europe.?

In terms of customer segments, growth will be led by utilities, forecast to become the largest customer segment as the markets move away from the current dominance of residential installations.

PV Growth in Japan Stimulated by New Government Initiatives

With the implementation of a nationwide net feed-in tariff, the Japanese solar PV market is expected to install at least 1.29 GW of new PV capacity in 2011. This represents growth of approximately 35%, a sharp contrast to established European markets which are displaying low growth or even contraction during 2011. Nonresidential installations, while not representing the majority of total capacity, are growing at more than twice the rate of residential system installations. Japan was the fourth largest PV market in the world in 2010, doubling for a second year in a row and installing 960 MW, thanks to re-launch of the nationwide residential incentive program and the net feed-in tariff. The Fukushima nuclear disaster has led to calls from domestic cell manufacturers to push for enhanced renewable energy policies. Meanwhile, the share of imported modules has grown more than 138% Y/Y, accounting for 13% of module shipments in Japan last year.

China PV Market Ready to Break GW Level

On-grid installations in China are projected to double in 2011 as Chinese incentive policies increase the pace of large and utility-scale PV installations. In 2010, 85% of demand in China was from projects larger than 1 MW and the latest temporary on-grid tariff announcement in Qinghai province will further boost shares of ground-mount utility projects in 2011. Programs such as the Golden Sun and Solar Rooftop programs maintain prominence going forward as developers continue to advance projects towards completion. Provincial FIT policies in Jiangsu and Shandong also made significant contributions to overall demand. With improving policy environments at both central and local government levels, as well as a near 10 GW project pipeline, the PV market in China is ready to deliver strong growth through 2015.

Strong Growth in India's On-Grid Market

The on-grid ground-mount segment is expected to lead the way in building India?s installed capacity, with installations expected to at least double in 2011. The National Solar Mission, as well as state level policies in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra are leading to strong growth, with these three states accounting for as much as 70% of the total Indian market in 2011. Armed with the goal of installing 22 GW of new solar capacity by 2022, the National Solar Mission has sanctioned 300 MW of on-grid PV capacity to be installed through 2011 and 2012, with an additional 300 MW to be allocated in 2H?11. Though the first round of projects has experienced setbacks due to high capital costs, low returns, and regulatory hurdles, a potential restructuring of project guidelines is likely to stimulate higher success rates of future projects. As of June 2011, the on-grid pipeline of projects targeted for completion by 2013 stood at 1.5 GW.

South Korea Moves Toward RPS

Although projected to contract in 2011 due to the phase-out of the country?s FIT program, longer-term growth potential in South Korea remains stable as new Renewable Portfolio Standards are implemented. The new RPS is expected to install 1.2 GW of new PV capacity over the next five years, although at a much slower pace than in past years. Decreased incentives under the FIT and RPS significantly slowed large ground-mount installations in 2010, paving the way for strong growth in the building-mount segments. This trend is expected to continue over the next few years, as the Korean government seeks to incentivize small and building-mount applications.

Australia PV Market Grows Despite Erratic Policy Movements

The Australian governments latest energy policy takes the form of a carbon tax, which will transition to a capand-trade system in 2015. The introduction of this policy comes on the heels of several dramatic policy changes, including an increase in the rate of decline for Australia?s main PV incentive program, Solar Credits, and the implosion of several state-based feed-in tariff programs. The 431% market growth in 2010 came despite an attempt by the government to reign in demand for PV installations. The economics of PV systems have been enhanced by decreasing installed system costs, due to falling global module prices, an increasing number of accredited installers, and expectations of increasing retail electricity prices. New South Wales accounted for 44% of the national market, but now faces market disruption following cessation of the Solar Bonus Scheme in April. Fragmented and stop-start solar policies remain the largest stumbling block to long-term sustainable growth for the PV industry in Australia.

Gillard also confirmed the tax will rise 2.5% a year through 2015 when the levy will transition into an emissions trading scheme that is expected to be the world’s third national greenhouse gas cap-and-trade scheme after the EU and New Zealand.

“Delaying action on climate change will only lead to dramatically higher costs, will undermine our competitiveness and will ultimately hit jobs and living standards,” said the Government’s release.

Half the revenue raised from the tax will be immediately recycled in the form of tax cuts to households worth over AUD$15 billion. According to Government calculations, two thirds of all residents will receive some form of financial assistance to cope with rising energy bills, while many of the poorest households will find themselves better off, despite anticipated increases in energy bills of AUD$10 a week.

A further AUD$10 billion has been earmarked for the formation of a new Clean Energy Fund to help accelerate the development of renewable energy projects.

"At its core it really is quite simple, we at the moment put carbon pollution into our atmosphere for nothing, a big polluter can just keep chugging it up into the skies and not pay anything," said Gillard.

"Big polluters will pay a price, they're smart business people, when a bill comes in for carbon pollution they'll say, 'How can I reduce that bill, how can I change my processes so I generate less carbon pollution?'."

The Australian solar industry received the tax with mixed feelings, stating that the boost that large-scale solar will receive will be welcome, but additional targeted support for small-scale and medium solar energy seems to have been overlooked.

Jeremy Rich, CEO of Australian solar energy company Energy Matters said, “We welcome the support for large-scale solar announced on Sunday, but echoing a statement I made recently, the Government needs to further its targeted support for small- and medium-scale solar; which could come out of the funding for large-scale – no new money needs to be allocated.”

“This will ensure Australia can gain the most carbon emission reduction benefit in the years ahead and accelerate the nation to the point where solar goes beyond grid parity and becomes cheaper than filthy fossil fuels.”

The model is also not without its detractors. Some carbon-intensive businesses and opposition politicians lined up to attack the proposed tax, predicting it would have a crippling effect on the country’s economy.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott said this was "a tax increase pretending to be an environmental policy – it’s socialism masquerading as environmentalism".

Qantas and Virgin Blue said the impact of the tax on their operations would be passed down to customers in the form of higher ticket prices, while the Australian Coal Association predicted the tax would result in around 4,700 direct jobs being lost across the mining industry.