2018

Following the signing of an assistance agreement between the Queensland Government and international consortium Imperium 3, an AU$2 billion lithium-ion battery factory is one step closer to reality.

The Chinese solar PV company has signed a module supply agreement with PowerChina Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited for a 240 MW solar project in Vietnam.

The first movers are two big energy consumers – the Airport of Paris and state-owned railway company, SNCF – which have decided to consider bids from renewable energy producers. According to Xavier Daval from local association, SER-Soler, private PPAs will be able to offer the stable electricity prices currently being granted by nuclear power, over the next few years.

Solargiga Energy Holdings Limited has issued a profit warning, stating it expects to record a loss of around US$15.2 million for the period ending June 30, 2018.

In a meeting in Brussels, the majority of EU member states have decided not to re-apply the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures for crystalline solar PV modules and cells. As such, the undertaking on the minimum import price (MIP) is likely to end on September 3.

Module degradation tests are essential not only for effective plant operations, but also to ensure an optimum ROI. However, fixed laboratories, where such tests are usually carried out, involve transportation issues, while it is not always economically feasible to send in mobile laboratories. So how can degradation in these instances be measured? Leonardo Enrique Pérez Abreu, Technical Manager of the Testing & Optimization department at Enertis discusses this issue.

Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) has invited expressions of interest (EoIs) to develop 1 GW of grid-connected solar PV projects at the proposed 5 GW Dholera Solar Park. The state of Maharashtra, meanwhile, has issued a generic PV tariff.

In the 2018 spring round of the program for large-scale renewable energy projects, solar secured around 1.7 GW of the 2.3 GW of total capacity allocated. Overall, 3,744 PV projects were selected, which will comprise 57% of the round’s available budget.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s pipeline of projects has ballooned to almost 80 GW. 12 GW of this is gas, while the rest is wind and solar power plants, as well as 522 MW of energy storage.

German company, Geltz Umwelt-Technologie has developed an advanced recycling plant, which it says could recover up to 95% of the materials in a module for reuse. With funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 project, the company is planning a pilot facility that could recycle up to 50,000 silicon based PV modules per year.