Solar Large-Scale Plants News

Japan’s largest floating PV plant catches fire after Typhoon Faxai impact
Kyocera’s 13.7 MW floating project at the Yamakura Dam was damaged by 120mph winds the typhoon brought to the coastal city of Chiba. Firefighters said the blaze may have been generated by the strong heat produced by panels stacking up.
Sep 9, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Floating PV, Japan, Kyocera, floating PV, Asia, Yamakura Dam, Chiba
Central Bank of Brazil wants to buy power through solar leasing
Brazil’s biggest lender has launched three tenders to select solar facilities to supply it with power through leasing. The central bank expects to buy around 4 GWh of electricity per year for the Federal District and another 2 GWh in the states of Goiás and Pará.
Sep 9, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Markets & Finance News, Tariffs, South america, Brazil, ANEEL, Central Bank, Banco do Brasil SA
Colombian renewables auction attracts 53 bids from 27 companies
Canadian Solar, Acciona, Enel, EDF, Solarpack and Trina are among the contenders to develop large scale renewables projects. Some 26 power distributors are participating in the procurement as buyers.
Sep 9, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Markets & Finance News, Canadian Solar, EDF, Enel, Trina, Acciona, Solarpack, National Mining and Energy Planning Unit
Qatar solar testing facility ‘open for business’
After more than six years of scientific and technical research efforts in the solar sector, the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) is now targeting a major role in the industry itself.
Sep 9, 2019 // Manufacturing News, Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Grids, pv modules, Asia, Qatar, r&d, qeeri, testing, Dr. Veronica Bermudez Benito
Lightsource BP breaks ground on 70MW Pennsylvania trio
Lightsource BP has started construction of a 70MW trio of Pennsylvanian solar projects that will provide power to Penn State University.
Sep 9, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, USA, pv power plants, utility-scale PV, Lightsource BP, Pennsylvania, North America, penn state university
Industry: Italian solar comeback needs market redesign, not subsidies
Subsidies are not the answer for Italy to revive its solar industry from the deadlock brought about by the scrapping of feed-in tariffs (FiT), operators have warned at an industry event.
Sep 9, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Tariffs, Italy, PPA, pv power plants, solar pv, Europe, subsidy-free pv, feed-in tariff, Paolo Rocco Viscontini
UNEP: Solar the star of a decade of ‘incredible’ renewables momentum
Solar PV has seen a “meteoric rise” over the past decade, with more capacity installed than any other power source, according to a new report by BloombergNEF and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Sep 9, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Markets & Finance News, Germany, UK, China, Europe, Asia, bloomberg nef, unep, solar finance, development finance, reports, Inger Anderson
Nigeria powers up Africa’s ‘largest off-grid solar hybrid’
The latest project to be switched on in Nigeria’s solar electrification programme for universities is also thought to be the largest ‘hybrid’ plant of its kind on the African continent so far, inaugurated this week at Bayero University Kano (BUK).
Sep 8, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Grids, solar pv, off-grid solar, Africa, microgrid, Nigeria, off-grid pv, renewable integration, rural electrification
STI Norland expects 1.2GW of contracted mounting systems orders in 2019
Mounting systems specialist STI Norland said it had surpassed 3GW of cumulative installations with 1.2GW of contracted mounting systems orders expected in 2019.
Sep 8, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Japan, Spain, France, India, pv power plants, Europe, Asia, Mexico, North America, sti norland, pv trackers, pv mounting systems
High power prices, falling PV costs and new regulations behind Brazil’s solar carnival
The nation’s thriving distributed generation market is flying, as was evident at last week’s Intersolar South America trade show. The sector seems unconcerned by mooted changes to net metering incentives in the new year and when even an environmental non-believer like President Bolsonaro is on side, it is difficult to be pessimistic.
Sep 8, 2019 // Manufacturing News, Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Inverters, Solar, USA, Sungrow, Canadian Solar, China, South america, Latin america, Europe, Brazil, Asia, Fronius, Greener, North America, Intersolar South America, Solar Promotion, Florian Wessendorf, utility scale solar, Marcelo Sousa, Ada Li, Thais Zampieri Bitancourt, Julian Rau, Trina, Álvaro García Maltrás, Apollo Chai, Rodolfo Meyer, Portal Solar, Marcio Takata, Lucas Troia
Panda Green accepts $22.5m hit on sale of 540 MW of solar projects
The heavily indebted developer has cashed in two eight-project portfolios for an immediate $28 million windfall but accepted the sales recognize heavy losses as it continues to try and pay down debt.
Sep 8, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Markets & Finance News, China, Asia, Panda Green, Shanxi Silu Electricity Engineering Co Ltd, Changzhou Zhaolian Lvchang New Energy Ltd
Solar-plus-storage vs grid enhancement
Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator will implement a pilot project for a future electricity market based on PV, storage and smart power consumption. The utility says the project will be a cheaper, more efficient alternative to expanding grid infrastructure.
Sep 8, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, IESO, Alectra Utilities, Natural Resources Canada, Terry Young
Comtec ready to swim against the tide by outsourcing manufacturing
While the rest of China’s solar manufacturers take on ever more debt to expand their production lines as fast as possible, Comtec said it is ready to sell off fabs for the right money and will instead focus on project sales and lithium battery and EV business opportunities.
Sep 6, 2019 // Manufacturing News, Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Markets & Finance News, China, Asia, Comtec, John Yi Zhang
France added just 397 MW of solar in six months
At the end of June, France’s installed PV capacity topped 9.3 GW for a 4% increase on the figure recorded at the end of December. Only 397 MW of new capacity was put into operation, however, a much lower figure than the 490 MW deployed in the same period of 2018. Why?
Sep 6, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, France, Europe, CRE, David Callegari
China’s aluminum smelters alone could shift 2.3% of daily electricity demand
German energy agency Dena has found China’s smelter fleet could shift 432.5 GWh of daily demand to more amenable hours to tally with renewables generation. To make it happen though, the regulator needs to lay down rules for providing incentives.
Sep 5, 2019 // Manufacturing News, Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Germany, China, Europe, Asia, Dena, flexible