Solar Plants News

PV technology has made significant progress in a short amount of time, leaving solar enthusiasts chuffed. Opponents, on the other hand, brand it as unworkable boondoggle, surviving on the crutches of subsidies and only salving the conscience of the green-minded companies cosseted by political forces. The naysayers do have partial truth in their argument - governments the world over have been supporting the growth of this child with the moniker “solar” with public finances. So, this is the partial truth and the enthusiasts have just enough firepower to say that all energy is, after all, subsidised one way or another – in terms of uncompensated costs of air pollution, congestion and global warming and the consequential irreversible damage these fossil fuels have done to the planet. Perhaps more important and statistically relevant is a report published by the IMF in 2015, which had pegged subsidies to fossil fuels at US$5.3 trillion.

The state enterprise Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) issued at the beginning of the month a tender for 1,200MW of renewable power that can be used to alleviate peak demand issued on the grid, in effect mandating the use of energy storage systems (ESS).

‘Solar Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JA Solar has supplied its bifacial double-glass PERC modules to a 2.5MW rooftop project at a Goodyear tire manufacturing facility in Shah Alam, Malaysia, the country's largest such project.

Soventix has been singled out by the Nicaraguan government as the potential developer of a major solar project, the latest in a series of PV moves by the Central American state.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has issued another tender, seeking PV developers to help develop 1.5GW of solar projects across the country. This latest tender stands as part of the second phase of the Central Public Sector Undertaking (CPSU) program.

A German player has become the owner of a distributed solar pipeline in El Salvador, laying the groundwork for construction to launch later this year.

Global asset management firm Capital Dynamics has purchased an 180MWac / 231MWdc solar project that includes a 90MWac / 360MWh energy storage facility in Boulder City, Nevada for an undisclosed sum.

Natixis and ARCO 3 SpA have closed senior facilities totaling US$69.1 million for a portfolio of solar PV plants in Chile, with up to 70MW of generation capacity.

Amazon revealed plans for a 45MW / 100,000MWh solar farm in Virginia and a 23.2MW / 68,000MWh wind farm in Cork, Ireland on Thursday.

ABO Wind has reached key solar milestones across two of its European target markets, notching up a major sale in Spain and linking its first Hungarian PV project.

The tech giant has signed a power contract for the output of First Solar’s 150 MWac Sun Streams 2 solar plant, bringing its procurement of solar to almost 500 MW – but none of its PV projects have been completed yet.

In collaboration with Raptor Maps, FLIR has created a five-part series with four videos and a webinar on the use of thermal drones for solar inspection.

As clean energy stakeholders urge Arizona regulators to adopt stronger renewable energy standards, Arizona Public Service Co. (APS) has announced plans to add new solar and wind resources, helping expand the company’s renewable energy portfolio to about 2.5 GW by 2021, which would be enough to power more than half a million Arizona homes.

A report by Greenpeace has found in the five years since China announced the continent spanning ‘One Belt, One Road’ infrastructure plan, investment in Belt & Road countries has supported 12.6 GW of wind and solar power generation capacity. That is almost three times the 450 MW that came online in the territories before 2014. The initiative has also supported 68 GW of new coal capacity.

IPP Sonnedix has completed a non-recourse financing of a portfolio of PV projects in Italy, at a value of US$224 million.