In recent days, a hailstorm in northern Italy has raised concerns about the potential damage sudden and intense atmospheric events may cause to photovoltaic systems. Several system owners have shared photos of damaged plants on social media, clearly showing the intensity of the hail, particularly its size, with diameters reaching up to 20 centimeters in some cases.

In 2022, the traditional energy supply and prices in Europe were affected by the Ukraine-Russia war, prompting the European Union to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and implement stimulating policies to expand the photovoltaic (PV) electricity market. The EU also announced plans to achieve cumulative PV installations of 320 GW and 600 GW by 2025 and 2030 respectively, and to increase the share of renewable energy in electricity generation to 45%.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently released a market report on the outlook for the renewable energy market in 2023 and 2024. According to the report, global added renewable energy installation capacity is set to soar from 107GW in 2023 to over 440GW, marking the largest increase in history.

At this week's Intersolar Europe in Munich, Germany, SolarPower Europe released its latest edition of the 2023-2027 global market outlook.

Recently, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie's "U.S. Solar Market Insights" report for the second quarter of 2023, the U.S. solar industry reached an installed capacity of 6.1GW in the first quarter of 2023.

Data released by the Hellenic Photovoltaic Companies Association reveals that the installed capacity in Greece's solar market in 2022 was three times that of 2021.

According to recent research data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. solar market is expected to add 29.1GW of utility-scale solar photovoltaic systems and 9.4GW of energy storage systems by 2023.

In its latest annual report on clean technology trends for 2022, IHS Markit highlights the significance of solar energy. Specifically, the report indicates that distributed generation, defined by IHS Markit as photovoltaic systems below 5MW, is experiencing an anticipated growth rate of 20% in 2022.

In 2022, the surge in energy prices triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war has led to a significant increase in countries' attention to renewable energy, and the photovoltaic market is booming.

Last week, the German parliament approved a new tax relief scheme for roof-top solar PV, including an exemption of value-added tax for systems below 30 kilowatts. It is understood that the German parliament conducts debates on annual tax laws at the end of each year to formulate new regulations for the upcoming 12 months. The 2022 annual tax law approved by the Federal Parliament last week marked a comprehensive modification of the tax treatment of PV systems for the first time.