Asia

Adani has put on hold ambitious plans to invest A$2bn-A$3bn in solar plants in Australia, blaming regulatory hitches that it said were causing delays for renewable operators seeking to connect to the National Grid.

Ukraine’s favorite solar module manufacturer has posted another encouraging set of returns, after a difficult year in 2018. And Risen – which boasted 6.6 GW of annual production capacity at the end of last year, according to analysts at PV InfoLink – is committed to adding another 2.5 GW before 2022.

Singapore's national water agency PUB has awarded contracts to build two 1.5MW floating solar projects on the Bedok and Lower Seletar Reservoirs to local engineering firm BBR Greentech.

The French development agency AFD has signed off on a EUR24.2 million (US$26.9 million) loan for a 49MW solar project in Gia Lai Province, Vietnam, with the country's monopoly utility EVN.

The government of the Philippines will spend $500 million on solar-powered water supply and desalination in remote areas of Mindanao, the second-largest island in the archipelago. Elsewhere, a Finnish study has suggested drought-hit Iran could benefit from renewable-powered desalination.

Hopes are high up to 5 GW of residential solar capacity will have been added by the time this month’s figures are added, as the household solar feed-in tariff still applies – but only until Thursday. However, the AECEA consultancy has again revised down its overall new capacity expectation for the year.

SunPower building 35MW project to supply Chevron's Lost Hills Oil Field. Assam tenders for 25MW solar project. Constant Energy partners Sodexo Thailand

Japanese trading corporation Mitsui & Co has sold its interest in a 679MW portfolio of operational Canadian wind and solar to Canadian infrastructure management firm Axium.

The factory, backed by the Turkish government in September, was originally intended to be built with the support of Korean solar manufacturer Hanwha Q Cells. The new partner is China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC). Production is planned to start next year.

PV manufacturers receive 10% of the value of their exported products as an incentive and the nation’s central bank has extended the program to cover this financial year. Bangladesh’s solar manufacturers have called for more, however, and point to more generous schemes to the west.

According to official figures released by China’s National Energy Administration, new solar capacity installations in the third quarter of 2019 slumped to only 4.6GW under new support mechanisms that were implemented mid-year.

Inline solar cell measurement equipment specialist Aurora Solar Technologies (AST) has won a major repeat order from two top-tier China-based manufacturers of high-efficiency PERC (Passivated Emitter Solar Cell) solar cells.

PV wet processing specialist, RENA Technologies has received equipment orders from three leading PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) solar cell manufacturers in Asia, totalling 10GW in the last three months.

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.

Total Solar Distributed Generation (DG) has completed the installation of a solar photovoltaic rooftop system for CARROS Centre, Singapore's first-of-a-kind integrated mega hub dedicated to the Automotive Industry.