Solar Large-Scale Plants News

The tender produced lower bids than previous rounds but again allocated less generation capacity than planned. The Japanese government initially accepted bids for a combined 589.9 MW but ended up assigning only 195.8 MW of capacity. The final average price for procured solar power was $0.1222/kWh.

pv magazine publisher Eckhart Gouras spoke to Carolina Obando, regulatory coordinator at renewable energy association SER Colombia, to discuss the country’s first renewable energy auction. The delayed tender promises to boost a solar industry with a 4.3 GW pipeline.

Demand for systems with a generation capacity of up to 750 kW is driving the market. The 52 GW capacity cap for solar under the national FIT scheme is approaching. In September, feed-in tariffs and market premiums will fall a further 1.4%.

The levelized cost of energy produced by large scale PV projects ranges from €24/MWh in southern Spain to €42/MWh in Finland. New research states that is already cheaper than the average spot market electricity price and that the figure for big facilities in southern Spain may fall to €14 in 2030 and €9 in 2050.

Mathematicians at Canada’s University of Waterloo who turned their attention to solar power have developed an algorithm they say offers better control over PV plant output. The researchers estimate the algorithm could improve the output of a 100 MW power plant by almost a million kilowatt-hours per year.

The Uzbek government last week opened a rooftop solar program which provides 30% of the initial costs for buying and installing a PV system, up to around $320 per project. Tax incentives are also available.

Japanese developer Eurus Energy and Australian-headquartered wind developer Windlab have signed a deal with Kenyan authorities to develop an 80MW solar-plus-wind-plus-storage facility in central Kenya.

The SMSL reported second-quarter PV module shipments of 3,386MW, an increase of 11.5% from 3,037MW in the first quarter of 2019 and an increase of 21.2% from 2,794MW in the second quarter of 2018.

Solar winners of the first Brazilian A-6 auction ever to admit PV bids will be offered 20-year supply deals with the government, newly-released official documents show.

France has laid the groundwork for a new period of solar growth with the announcement of three new government solar auctions for 2020.

Fifth Third Bancorp and SunEnergy1 have opened the 120MWdc/80MWac Aulander Holloman Solar Facility in Hertford County, North Carolina. The facility, developed by SunEnergy1, is expected to generate clean power that is more than or equal to the total that Fifth Third uses in a year, which is enough to cut out 143,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases and power 25,000 households.

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 pressure building for the US to water down decades-old federal energy policy risks further tilting the scales in utilities’ favour, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

Chile is home to a massive 10.3 million tons of lithium reserves, most of which is found in the Atacama Desert in the northern part of the country. With some of the highest solar irradiation levels on Earth, this region also boasts the perfect conditions for generating solar power. Developments in the photovoltaic market, alongside implementation of more efficient energy storage systems, are positioning Chile as a regional leader in this field. So what does the future hold for battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Chile, and what obstacles lie in their way?

The nation’s Ministry of Energy and Water is seeking developers for a plant on an industrial park at the center of a previous 40 MW procurement exercise.