Tag - solar

 
 

SOLAR

China's solar industry, hit hard in 2024 by overcapacity and financial losses, is expected to recover in 2025 with tighter market conditions and a 25% revenue growth forecast.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2024
Here’s the best climate news you missed this year
There are plenty of positive trends out there once you peer past the alarmist headlines.
The flag of China is seen next to the elements of gallium and germanium on a periodic table.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 23, 2024
Tiny but vital metal markets rush to adjust to Chinese clampdown
Beijing this month slapped a ban on U.S.-bound exports of gallium, germanium and antimony in a tit-for-tat move in a technology trade war.
China’s solar industry is seeking to emulate OPEC’s cartel model, but differences in technological innovation, market dynamics and centralized control by Beijing complicate such efforts.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2024
An OPEC for solar power isn’t going to work
Geological advantages are perpetual, but technological advantages can quickly become obsolete.
Employees at SunSource Energy inspect solar panels installed at a food processing plant in Greater Noida, India, on Nov. 21.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Dec 2, 2024
Glittering dreams: India's big push for solar power
India is building what it boasts will be the world's largest renewable power plant, an emblem of a determined push to boost solar energy.
Workers install solar panels at the Khavda Renewable Energy Park of Adani Green Energy in the village of Khavda, in India, on April 12.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 28, 2024
Adani allegations cast light on barriers to India's ambitious solar drive
India's states are unprepared for a rapid rise in renewable generating capacity, lack adequate transmission infrastructure and storage.
A Toshiba film-based perovskite photovoltaic module on display at the Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions booth at Smart Grid Expo in Tokyo on Feb. 28
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 26, 2024
Japan considers promoting the use of perovskite solar cells for energy
The plan is part of work to expand the use of renewable energy sources by supporting the introduction of next-generation technologies.
A farmer cleans solar panels in a field in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Nov 25, 2024
Surprise solar boom in Pakistan helps millions, but harms grid
The rise of solar in Pakistan has many benefits, but a rapid and unregulated boom also threatens to weaken the country’s utilities and destabilize the fragile economy.
An electrical substation in Tokyo. Japan's total power generation fell to its lowest in more than a decade in the year through March.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 22, 2024
Japan’s power output falls to lowest in more than a decade
The total amount of electricity generated fell 1.6% year on year to 985.4 terawatt hours in the 12 months to March.
Investigators from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police raid a metal shop in Koga City, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 18, 2024
Four shops raided in Japan for allegedly buying stolen cables
By October, Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department had arrested seven members of a Thai group for stealing copper cables from solar power plants.
A Sardinian miner helmet, painted with the logo of Sardinia region, in Carbonia, west of Cagliari, Italy. Sardinia relies largely on coal for its electricity.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 18, 2024
Locals revolt against renewables in Italy's coal-fired island, Sardinia
The island a prime location for wind and solar power but intense investor interest has spooked locals who say Sardinia is being exploited.
Solar panels installed along the coastline of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture. Due to the relative ease of starting solar power generation, mega solar power plants have been installed rapidly across the country.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2024
Japan to mandate solar panel recycling when lifespan ends
The number of panels reaching the end of their lifespans is projected to start rising sharply in the mid-2030s.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs one of five executive orders related to the oil pipeline industry in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Jan. 24, 2017.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 7, 2024
From oil to EVs, here’s how Trump’s victory affects energy
The prospect of a Trump-era pullback from some policies promoting emission-free energy has already helped spark a slide in shares of renewable power firms.
Chinese solar panel manufacturer Trina Solar's facility in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam, on Aug. 30
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 4, 2024
Chinese solar firms, ever-nimble, go where U.S. tariffs don't reach
Chinese solar firms have repeatedly sidestepped tariffs to dominate the global markets despite U.S. efforts over more than a decade to rein them in.
Amazon is seeking to source more clean power agreements in Southeast Asia and India.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Oct 12, 2024
Amazon prefers renewables in Asia as nuclear still elusive
While Asia remains one of the most challenging geographies to acquire green power, it’s the region with the greatest potential.
A worker inspects solar panels in Gansu Province, China, in 2013.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 16, 2024
China’s U.S. solar plants undermine domestic push, report says
The report comes amid increasing scrutiny of Chinese investment in U.S.-based manufacturing of the solar tech key to the transition away from fossil fuels.
Solar panels and wind turbines at a power plant in Hami in China's Xinjiang region. The U.S. and other countries have described China’s actions against Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, a key cog in the cleantech supply chain, as a genocidal campaign aimed at erasing an entire culture.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Sep 16, 2024
How China’s dominance of solar and batteries is impacting Japan’s energy transition
China has thrown its industrial might behind cleantech, putting Japan in a tough spot as it weighs human rights concerns against its climate targets.
A Rapidus factory construction site in Chitose, Hokkaido, on July 24. The plan to ramp up renewable energy usage in the region to 60% by 2030 is part of a larger concept known as “Hokkaido Valley.”
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Aug 26, 2024
Hokkaido more plugged in to renewable energy than rest of Japan
The local government aims to raise its share of renewable energy to 60% from the current 40%, but Hokkaido's grid needs to be upgraded first.
Solar cell panels over the water surface of Sirindhorn Dam in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. Four countries in Southeast Asia including Thailand account for more than 40% of solar module production capacity outside of China.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 21, 2024
Southeast Asia’s solar boom threatened by U.S.-China trade tension
Chinese firms that set up shop in the region over the last decade are being accused of skirting U.S. import levies on their home market.
A fisher on his way to inspect fish pens in Laguna Lake in the Philippines. About 13,000 people depend on the lake for their livelihoods, according to the Laguna Lake Development Authority.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 12, 2024
Philippines fishers worry solar farm on lake will hurt incomes
A group of fishers is opposed to the government's plan to place solar panels atop Laguna de Bay, one of the country's biggest sources of freshwater fish.
Power lines on the highway between Shanghai and Suzhou, China, on Oct. 23, 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 12, 2024
China rapidly expands battery fleet but needs to start using it
China’s new energy storage capacity jumped to 44 gigawatts at the end of June, a 40% increase from the start of the year.

Longform

Members of the Wajima City Morning Market Association pose for a group photograph on the site where the market once stood.
In the wake of disaster, the revival of Wajima's market brings hope