Solar Large-Scale Plants News

First Solar announced that its Sun Streams 2 PV solar plant will power new energy-efficient data centers being built by Microsoft in Goodyear and El Mirage, Arizona. The 150-MWac facility, is being developed and constructed by First Solar in Maricopa County and will power the data centers under a 20-year agreement and will be operational in 2021.

Engie has secured a power purchase agreement (PPA) for a solar plant to back the operations of Saudi Arabia’s self-styled largest listed food group.

Arizona’s largest electric utility is gearing up to tender 400MW of renewables before the summer is up.

Most CleanTechnica readers are renewable energy advocates. Wind, solar, recovering energy from the water we boil to make our breakfast tea — anything and everything that makes zero emissions electricity without burning fossil fuels is welcome. But there is a dark side to the transition to renewables. Lots of people make their living working in the fossil fuel industry. If the renewable energy revolution is to be successful, those people must be able to transition to clean energy jobs

The state-owned China News Service today reported almost $80 million is left in the pot for large scale project subsidies this year despite almost 420 facilities with a combined generation capacity of 1.77 GW having missed out in the auction.

UDP Renewables, part of the UFuture Investment Group, has commissioned the second phase of the Scythia Solar project, taking the total capacity to 46MW.

Indian IPP Avaada Energy is in the process of implementing 2GW of open access solar plants in states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Karnataka and Orissa. Avaada currently has a portfolio of over 500MW of open access solar plants for various commercial and industrial companies.

A private power distribution company in India issued a tender to procure energy from solar-wind hybrid projects with a goal to fulfill its Renewable Purchase Obligation, and possibly, to reduce the cost of power procurement.

sPower, a company handling development, construction and operation of solar power facilities, and PSEG Long Island, a major electric utility provider, have completed a 20-MWac solar plant in Riverhead, New York. The project will provide power for approximately 2,870 homes annually, as New York moves to completely decarbonize its electricity system by 2040.

Through the procurement exercise, the Ecuadorian government will select wind, solar and mini hydropower projects. Selected developers will be granted a 25-year PPA, while the sole off-taker of the generated energy will be state-owned utility Corporacion Electrica de Ecuador, S.A. (CELEC).

Australian authorities have rallied behind what is arguably the largest solar-plus-storage project to be conceived in the world’s history.

An Argentinian utility-scale PV project snapped up by Canadian Solar last year has started supplying power to the grid.

German clean energy fund Hep Kapitalverwaltung AG has entered the US distributed solar market with an investment in regional developer ReNew Petra.

Last week the Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA) revealed the winners of its feed-in tariff (FiT) auction.

Scatec Solar and its partners have grid connected its third solar power plant in Malaysia, the 66MW Merchang plant. Scatec now boasts a 197MW PV pipeline within the country.