ROUND-UP: 1MW of PV at Gazprom oil plant in Russia, Hungarian milestones for Photon Energy

1MW plant fired up at Gazprom Neft oil refinery in Russia

21 October: Russian renewables developer Hevel has inaugurated a 1MW solar power station at a Gazprom Neft oil and gas refinery in Omsk, south-central Russia.

The plant comprises 2,500 rooftop, building façade, and ground-mounted bifacial modules as well as biaxial automated trackers, according to a Hevel release.

“The solar power station will provide Omsk Oil Refinery with additional generation, improved energy efficiency and environmental friendliness through the use of areas at the plant that are not used in the oil process,” said Hevel engineering and business director Oleg Shutkin.

He noted that “the estimated annual output of the station will be 1.2 million kWh, which will help avoid more than 5,000 tons of CO2 emissions from coal-fired CHPs.”

“This solar power station is unique for our area, both in terms of the level of technologies being introduced and in reducing the load of traditional heat power engineering,” said Oleg Belyavsky, the refinery’s director general.

Gazprom Neft is the oil arm of Russian state gas company Gazprom.

Omsk is a town 110 kilometres north of Russia’s border with Kazakhstan.

Photon Energy turns on eight PV plants totalling 5.6MWp in Hungary

21 October: Dutch renewables firm Photon Energy’s Hungarian subsidiary has connected eight PV plants found 40 kilometres southeast of Budapest to the grid.

The plants, which cover an area of 9 hectares, are connected to the NKM Áramhálózati Kft grid and are expected to generate around 6.9GWh of electricity per year.

Georg Hotar, Photon Energy CEO, said in a statement that the new capacity takes the firm “yet another step closer to our year-end 2021 portfolio target of 75MWp in Hungary.”

Photon Energy's Hungarian arm owns eight KÁT licenses that entitle each power plant to a feed-in tariff of HUF 32,590/MWh (US$110/MWh) over a period of 25 years, with a maximum approved and supported production of 16,950MWh per license. Total annual revenues of all eight power plants are expected to amount to €680,000 (US$756,000).

Jinko delivers 13.6MW of modules to Photon Energy plants in Hungary

22 October: JinkoSolar Holding has supplied 13.6MW of PV solar modules to 19 Photon Energy plants in Hungary.

The plants are spread between three projects in the regions of Tiszakécske, Almásfüzitő, and Nagyecsed in the eastern European country.

They are connected to the E.ON Tiszántúli Áramhálózati Zrt (Tiszakécske) and E.ON Észak-dunántúli Áramhálózati Zrt grids and are expected to generate approximately 16GWh of electricity annually.