2020

Through the transaction, Cubico acquired 47 operating assets with a capacity of 274 MW – including 167 MW of PV in Spain as well as 7 MW of solar plants in Italy –and a portfolio of solar projects under development of about 1.4 GW.

A huge renewable energy complex is planned to include 5 GW of PV capacity. Furthermore, the State Power Investment Corporation has announced a plan to set up a 5 GW heterojunction solar cell factory in Fujian province.

The first 5 MW portion of the large floating power plant was connected to the transmission system of a 404 MW hydropower dam on the Black Volta River.

Dutch researchers have shown that bifacial floating PV arrays do not benefit significantly from sunlight reflected from the water, and claim that the water only reduces panel temperatures by a small amount. Bird droppings may also affect system performance, but floating PV could achieve a lower LCoE than ground-mounted arrays if such issues are addressed, they say.

Each of the nations, like Greece, will have gigawatt-plus solar additions in 2024, according to Solarpower Europe, enough to carve out a 3% slice of an anticipated 35 GW regional market.

Overall, the Polish energy regulator has allocated 1.7 GW of renewable energy capacity in a procurement exercise that was open to projects exceeding 1 MW in size. The auction concluded with a lowest price of $0.051/kWh, slightly up from the auction of the same kind held last year.

The Jamaican government has tendered a solar project intended at powering a water treatment plant and has also announced it will power, with PV, all irrigation systems operated by the National Irrigation Commission.

Launched in November, the “saving-autonomous” program is currently seeing strong interest from homeowners. The program has an €850 million budget and is intended at enabling around 600,000 homeowners to make their houses more energy-efficient by 2030. It includes the installation of a rooftop PV system in the frame of a renovation project.

The third annual scorecard published by the consultant has tested 22 batteries with different chemistries for cycling stability and temperature-dependent behaviour and identified significant product trends.

The European solar market saw around 11 GW of projects, and pipelines change hands in 2019. The positive trend is expected to last, as investors remain optimistic about the future of the industry. Project acquisition activity is seen as a key indicator of financial health in many sectors, including the PV market. It reflects optimism among investors and points to a particularly high degree of liquidity, writes IHS Markit analyst Martina Assereto.