Solar Grids News

Indian energy giant Adani Green Energy Limited has inked a deal to purchase 205MW of contracted and operational solar assets from Essel Group for an enterprise price of INR1,300 crore (US$182 million).

The managing director of London-based energy infrastructure company Statera has told pv magazine a clean energy grid in the U.K. will require as much flexible gas plant capacity as battery storage.

The wind power generator also has a 930 MW solar portfolio but did not take big steps in unsubsidized PV during the first six months of the year.

India’s Maharashtra state has launched a process to procure a major slice of grid-linked solar power, pushing for low prices in line with earlier tenders this year.

The fossil fuel giant announced the plan in its latest annual results. The company envisages rolling out electric vehicle chargers at its petrol and diesel stations.

Caledonia Mining wants to build a solar power plant at its Blanket gold mine in southern Zimbabwe to ward off the worst from the country's increasingly volatile power supply.

The utility has revealed plans to invest roughly $3 billion in the construction of a 5 GW solar park across two to three locations in the Kutch region of the Indian state of Gujarat. In a separate announcement, the New Delhi-based group opened global bidding to build 1.2 GW of grid-connected solar capacity throughout India.

The California Independent System Operator has warned state regulators that there could be a 4.7 GW capacity shortfall in 2022, in the early evening hours of the annual peak demand events of September. The grid operator has suggested the alteration of water cooling laws, as well as increased procurement of resources.

Deploying commercial and industrial PV in China without subsidy is already profitable in some areas, according to a new study, but prohibitive soft costs and cheap electricity are the main barriers for such installations in areas where grid parity remains out of reach.

The African countries of Botswana and Cameroon have taken steps to add a combined 125MW of installed PV capacity to their respective national grids.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has agreed to finance a feasibility study for a 150MW hybrid solar, wind and battery plant in northern Zambia.

Ethiopia is currently trying to set up a methodology for the calculation of electricity tariffs for mini-grid systems. Should the government’s work come to fruition, it can provide much-needed certainty to mini-grid investors.

German EPC Ib vogt has started construction on a utility-scale project in Australia’s New South Wales (NSW).

Sonnedix has marked the launch of construction works for a large-scale solar installation in Chile’s Atacama desert, with a view to power up the plant late next year.

Electricity produced from commercial and industrial solar energy systems is now cheaper in Chinese cities than that supplied by the national grid.