The projects will be tendered under single-round competitive bidding processes, supervised by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Railway operators can now feasibly connect solar plants to traction substations, claims a consortium that is now working on a similar demonstration project in the U.K. Almost all of the 30 kW installation’s output will be used to move trains, but in the future storage could come into the picture for larger “railway-connected” solar power projects, says 10:10, the U.K.-based climate change charity that developed the pilot.

According to a new report by BNP Paribas Asset Management, renewables offer more advantages than simply mitigating climate change. Electricity is easier to transport than oil, and wind and solar electricity prices are much more stable than volatile oil prices. An analyst from the French bank argues that major producers will need to reduce oil prices below $20 to compete with clean energy in the transport sector.

The global power and renewable energy market is expected to remain largely unaffected by the Trump administration’s new wave of tariffs on Chinese goods. Although shipments of Chinese modules into the U.S. market are falling, Chinese manufacturers sent more panels to overseas markets in the first half of this year than they did in the same period of 2018. Analysts from Fitch, meanwhile, claim the U.S. solar market will continue to expand, despite higher project costs.

With 46.9 MW of newly installed capacity, Italy registered its best month in two years despite having no large plants come online. Renewable energy association ANIE Rinnovabili says this year the country may record stronger growth due to renewed business investment incentives and new provisions regulating solar.

Antonio Delgado Rigal, chief executive of energy forecasting service Aleasoft, says the lowest final price of €0.0147/kWh announced by the Portuguese government from its recent solar auction does not reflect the real costs of PV and is no indicator of the future price of power in the electric market. More details of the auction are emerging and Iberdrola and Akuo appear big winners.

After joining the Scaling Solar initiative in mid-July, the sub-Saharan country has revealed where its first 30 MW PV plant will be built.

NamPower has announced two 20 MW solar projects as part of a 220 MW renewable energy strategy. One will be owned and operated by the utility and the second will be tendered in the near future.

Bidding for pre-qualification to the tender is open to developers until August 19. The projects are being developed in the frame of the Millennium Challenge Account-Bénin II (MCA-Benin II) program.

Next up in pv magazine‘s unsung solar markets series is Brazil, where a new series of auctions for solar has provided much needed clarity to the sector, at least up until 2021.