Solar Grids News

Singapore has targeted 2GW of solar by 2030 and 200MW of energy storage beyond 2025, but will continue to rely on natural gas for the next 50 years, according to a government official.

Giving a push to solar power energy, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has floated a tender for empanelment of companies to install 30 MW of grid-connected solar rooftop projects in the range of 1 kw to 1,000 kw.

CleanChoice Energy is introducing town partnerships for its CleanChoice Community Solar offerings. The company’s first Community Solar Partnership is with the Village of Wappingers Falls, where CleanChoice Energy will serve as the town’s preferred provider of community solar, allowing local residents to realize savings while working toward the town’s sustainability goals. Wappingers Falls’ residents can subscribe to CleanChoice Energy’s new portfolio of local community solar farms and save up to 10% on their utility bills.

In racing to provide access to electricity to all its citizens, the government has commissioned extensive coal, gas and nuclear generation capacity and the solar sector fears an ever-expanding national grid will kill the business case for solar in previously off-grid areas.

In this op-ed for pv magazine, Roy Torbert and José Juan Terrasa-Soler, of the Rocky Mountain Institute and Resilient Power Puerto Rico, respectively, analyze the cost of Puerto Rico’s energy recovery and the role that microgrids play in reconstruction and resiliency.

Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) is planning to be wholly powered by solar power and natural gas microgrid. For the first time in the United States, a major airport will be completely powered by its own microgrid with the use of its own on-site natural gas wells and a solar array.

The African Development Bank’s (AfDB) board of directors have approved a €138 million (US$154 million) investment for Tunisia’s state-run electricity distribution network.

The islands of the Caribbean have been focusing on the deployment of storage solutions, minigrids and microgrids in response to the damage their power systems suffered during the 2017 hurricane season. But with the opportunities, there are also challenges.

The European Union’s executive arm has approved a major ownership shake-up of Spanish developer X-Elio Energy, giving Brookfield Asset Management the green light to purchase a 20% stake from Acek Renewables alongside a 30% tranche from US infrastructure fund KKR.

Engie has been hired by Guam’s state electricity utility to build two solar-plus-storage plants with a combined capacity of 50MWp/300MWh on the Micronesian island.

A World Bank presentation in London drew an encouraging picture for the Nigerian market by explaining why the mini grid segment will take off in the next 12 months.

UAE developer Masdar Clean Energy has been awarded a 100MW project in Uzbekistan’s first competitive solar tender after submitting a bid of US$0.027/kWh.

Vietnamese advocates of solar power have begun a "Million Green Homes" project, aimed at spreading the use of solar power in the country instead of coal and other fossil fuels.

Originally intended to commission 140 MW of storage, the tender drew three winning projects: a 50 MW system and two 30 MW facilities. Eirgrid has estimated the total value of the contracts at around €6 million per year.

The Energy Ministry plans to allocate 10,000 megawatts, currently allotted to the household solar rooftop scheme, to other renewable energy methods such as community waste as the solar panel scheme has received little participation from homeowners.