[SMM PV Flash] Germany Anticipates Over 600,000 Tonnes of Solar PV Waste by 2030

Independent power producer (IPP) ContourGlobal, in partnership with a local public power utility, has completed the construction of the 324MW Black Hollow Sun solar PV complex in Colorado, US, four months ahead of schedule. The full commissioning of this project will supply substantial clean energy to the local grid. With this completion, ContourGlobal's total operating and under-construction renewable energy portfolio in the US has reached 1.5GW. The smooth progress of such utility-scale projects indicates that the US utility-scale solar market maintains a steady installation momentum.

On October 1, US solar manufacturer First Solar filed a patent infringement lawsuit in a Delaware federal court against Chinese module manufacturer JA Solar and American Panel Solutions, a subsidiary of Corning. First Solar alleges that these companies engaged in the unauthorized use of its core patents related to the manufacturing of TOPCon crystalline silicon solar cells. As competition within the global PV supply chain intensifies, technical patent scrutiny targeting leading Chinese module makers expanding overseas is becoming stricter, which may bring uncertainties to their capacity expansion and sales in the North American market.

Japanese regulators have recently tightened grid access rules for renewable energy and storage projects. Under the new regulations, power generators, including battery storage developers, must prove their rights to the project sites to maintain their grid connection queue status. This move aims to curb severe capacity hoarding; currently, the battery queue waiting for grid connection in Japan has reached a staggering 172GW, while actual connected utility-scale storage is less than 1GW. This policy is expected to accelerate the clearing of speculative projects and free up grid capacity for viable solar-plus-storage systems.