Solar Commercial Plants News

Huntsinger Farms, the world’s largest grower and processor of horseradish and the parent company of Silver Spring Foods, has won a $28,902.60 Focus on Energy grant to subsidize a new solar power installation on its Eau Claire, Wisconsin farm. Carlson Electric of Hudson will install the solar farm in Spring 2020.

The 2.5-megawatt PV facility will be operating under a program meant to protect grid operators against going bust

Rooftop solar, energy storage and other less-mainstream green energy technologies are among the targets of a new colossal renewable fund, the creation of the world’s largest asset manager.

Nevada utility NV Energy has secured approval from the state’s public utility commission for a solar-plus-storage push that could see 1,190MW of PV capacity installed in southern Nevada by January 2024 alongside 590MW of energy storage.

Fotowatio has a 1.9 gigawatt green power portfolio. The developer declared its initial utility-scale battery storage venture to join a worldwide energy storage drive.

The company said its technology, which is managed by an AI-based system, can be used in agrivoltaic projects.

The combination of pumped hydro with other storage technologies can increase renewables penetration, improve operational safety and reduce maintenance costs at large-scale hydropower plants, according to new research. The study also focuses on techniques to determine the optimal size of renewables-based pumped hydro storage systems. Costs for hybrid solar-pumped hydro projects currently range from $0.098/kWh to $1.36/kWh.

JinkoSolar, a SMSL pioneer, has provided Danish PV developer Obton with 40 megawatts of superefficient Cheetah HC 60 photovoltaic panels for its newly finished Netherlands-based venture.

Soltec, a leading solar tracker manufacturer, has announced the results of bifacial PV panel and tracker functionality testing from the BiTEC test centre at Livermore, the state of California, revealing an advantage in using two-module-in-portrait as well as a general gain of 15.7 percent.

Mali is set to host one of the world’s largest off grid solar+storage projects, as a 30 MW solar plant will soon be coupled with a 17MW/15MWh storage facility to power the Fekola gold mine. Finland’s Wärtsilä will supply the battery.

Ireland, in collaboration with France, intends to invest 8.8m euros in the development of a 7.5-megawatt photovoltaic installation in Gaza for treatment of polluted water.

EDF Renewables North America and Shell Energy North America (SENA) signed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) related to a 132 MWac tranche of the Palen Solar site known as Maverick 7 Solar Project. The project is expected to come online by the end of 2021.

Renova has put forward a majority stake and switched on a 80.8MW PV installation located in Iwate Prefecture, Japan.

The Spanish government has selected 55 solar installations in the procurement exercise. About 256 MW of the projects it awarded will be built on Mallorca, while Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera will host 61 MW, 6 MW and 2 MW of new capacity, respectively.

Spain’s former oil monopoly has pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 but admitted that current technologies would only be able to achieve "at least 70%" of that goal.