[Solar: Argentina’s largest PV plant El Quemado comes online]

Japan awarded 1.25GW of battery storage capacity across 19 projects in its latest Long-Term Decarbonization Auction, including 551MW of lithium-ion battery storage and 699MW of non-lithium battery storage. OCCTO awarded a total of 7.3GW of derated capacity across 32 projects, with 4.26GW going to decarbonization-source projects and 3.04GW to LNG-fired thermal generation. Although new rules excluded storage projects with durations below six hours and introduced stricter battery procurement and cybersecurity requirements, awarded battery storage capacity only fell slightly from 1.37GW in the previous round.

Brazil added 4.4GW of solar capacity in the first quarter of 2026, including 2.3GW from utility-scale projects and 2.2GW from distributed generation. In March, the country planned to connect 25 utility-scale solar plants totaling around 1.1GW, although new centralized connections are expected to slow toward the end of the year. If the first-quarter connection pace continues, Brazil could add 8.7GW of distributed solar and 4.7GW of utility-scale solar in 2026, bringing total annual additions to around 13.4GW, above ABsolar’s earlier forecast of about 10GW. SMM believes grid connection constraints, regulatory changes and rising curtailment pressure will remain key challenges, while storage, energy efficiency upgrades and migration to the free energy market could help sustain sector growth.

Cailian Press, May 18 — Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that solar cell (PV cell) production in April was 64.94 million kW, down 25.6% YoY. From January to April, solar cell (PV cell) production was 241.5 million kW, down 15.3% YoY.