October 2021

UK based developer Lightsource BP today announced plans to enter the Polish market and develop nine projects amounting to 757 MW, working alongside an unnamed local partner. Lightsource BP says around half of the projects could begin construction next year, and that bringing all of the pipeline to completion would require total investment of €500 million.

Chinese tech giant Huawei Digital Power has signed a contract with China’s SEPCOIII, a construction and engineering company and power plant operator, for a 400 MW PV plus 1300 MWh battery energy storage project in Saudi Arabia. Developed by ACWA Power, with SEPCOIII serving as general contractor and handling EPC services, the Red Sea Project […]

It turns out that you can have too much of a good thing, says Mark Byrne of Australia’s Total Environment Centre. Or rather, it’s possible that there is too much rooftop PV at some times in some places. As a result, a range of critical reforms – including the introduction of export tariffs to pay for upgrades of the electricity distribution network – are necessary to allow for the uninhibited growth of solar in the future, he argues.

Australian oil and gas giant Woodside is partnering with U.S.-based concentrated solar specialist Heliogen to build a 5 MW solar thermal demonstration plant in California. The project will deliver clean energy with nearly 24/7 availability.

Prices for power purchase agreements have been rising steadily since the end of last year. According to solar developers, interconnection delays, permitting challenges, and supply chain constraints are likely to keep them high.

The shortlisted developers are Jinko Power, Total, ACWA Power, Alfanar, and a consortium formed by Masdar and EDF.

Production waste puts a dent in the perception of sustainability of batteries. Northvolt, however, has partnered with a young Swedish company to make the best use of the battery production waste, and also help to decarbonize the fertilizer industry while they are at it.

Re-Source 2021 took place in Amsterdam at the end of last week, and pv magazine was there to cover the event where the suppliers and sellers of renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) meet the (largely corporate) buyers, though encouraging PPA uptake among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was among the major talking points, including ‘additionality’, de-risking renewable PPAs and 24/7 matching.

With a rising chorus of voices calling for more solar industry recruits to perform the energy transition, Nigeria already has a skilled base of PV engineers and, with a little help filling the few gaps they have in their knowledge, the nation can step into the breach immediately, as Testimony Gabe-Oji, chief technology officer for Abuja-based installer Green Energy Spectrum, explains.

The leading industrial electrolyzer maker is planning to expand its alkaline electrolysis business with the construction of a large-scale production site in Germany that will have an annual manufacturing capacity of 500 MW by 2023, with a further extension to gigawatt-scale already in the planning.