WEEKLY REVIEW

PV Market News This Week：

1. Australia: Rooftop Solar PV to Overtake Coal-Fired Power by the End of 2024

Non-profit organisation Climate Council has signalled that Australia, the global leader in rooftop solar PV installations, could add a further 26.4GW by the end of the decade, bringing its total to 49.4GW.

The organisation's Seize the Sun report, released 19 September, states that the installed capacity of rooftop solar PV is anticipated to overtake that of coal-fired generation by the end of the year.

Australia currently has around 3.6 million households with rooftop solar PV installed, granting households an average annual savings of around AU$1,500 (US$1,021). Collectively, this means Australian households are saving around AU$3 billion per year.

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2. Clean Energy Council Adopts New IEC PV Module Testing Standard in Australia

From 1 October 2024, new testing standards will be implemented for solar PV modules deployed in Australia.

The Clean Energy Council (CEC), Australia's most prominent clean energy group, said most modules which it approves for deployment from next month will be subject to testing from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The IEC is the international body which publishes standards for electronic products.

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3. US Finalises Section 301 Tariffs, Proposes 50% Duty on Wafers and Polysilicon

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has proposed increasing tariffs on wafers and polysilicon under Section 301.

Last week, the USTR unveiled modifications concerning tariff actions under Section 301, which includes the increase of solar cells (whether or not assembled into modules) tariffs from 25% to 50% as well as semiconductors and batteries.

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4. New South Wales Sets Australia's First Distributed Solar and Storage Uptake Target

The New South Wales government is set to implement the first target in Australia for the uptake of solar PV and battery energy storage by households and businesses, via its newly launched Consumer Energy Strategy.

The government aims to ensure one million households and small businesses have access to a rooftop solar and battery system by 2035, rising to nearly 1.5 million by 2050.

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5. U.S. Residential Solar Prices Hovering Near All-Time Low

Prices for residential solar installations are hovering around an all-time low, said marketplace platform EnergySage in its upcoming Marketplace Report.

Average prices on the EnergySage platform were $2.69 per watt for the first half of 2024, declining 4% from the second half of 2023. This is only 1% higher than the all-time low of $2.67 per watt in the first half of 2021, when U.S. residential solar experienced one of its largest growth cycles in history.

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6. Quebec to Run 150 MW Solar Tender before End of Year

The government of the Canadian province of Quebec has mandated two solar tenders take place to procure 300 MW of solar.

According to a decree published earlier this week, utility Hydro-Quebec is expected to carry out the first tender, acquiring at least 150 MW, by the end of this year. It is then expected to issue a second call for tenders for the other 150 MW by the end of 2026 at the latest.

The provincial government has specified that projects agreed under the tenders should be connected to Hydro-Québec's main network by no later than the end of 2029.

Plans for the 300 MW solar tender were first revealed in March of this year and mark the province's first call for solar energy production on a commercial basis.

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7. Germany's New Solar Installations Hit 790 MW in August

Germany installed 790 MW of new PV capacity in August, according to the latest figures from the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur). This compares to 1.05 GW in August 2022 and 1.46 GW in July 2024.?

In the first eight months of this year, developers connected 10.23 GW of solar to the grid, compared to 8.99 GW in the same period a year earlier.?The country's cumulative solar capacity surpassed 93.02 GW at the end of August.

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