Microgrid

Alsace start-up Ecosun is developing innovative microgrid solutions to provide electricity in isolated areas.

The Senegalese government is aiming to increase access to solar power in rural areas by reducing VAT on PV panels, inverters, solar thermal collectors and other products in an effort to achieve universal electricity access in the country by 2025.

pv magazine spoke with Catherine Von Burg, CEO of the Californian battery company, to discuss why she believes lithium-iron-phosphate is the chemistry of the near future.

Koen Peters has been the executive director of global offgrid solar association GOGLA since 2014. He has more than 20 years of international work experience, with more than 12 years in relation to energy access. He has gathered insights from many different perspectives and organizations, including government, consulting, startup businesses, and international finance organizations.

Inverter manufacturer Fimer provided its PVS980-58 central inverter solution for the project, which will derive 35% of its energy from solar PV.

Bboxx rents out offgrid PV systems and TVs to rural villagers across Africa. Customers can buy electricity under a mobile-based pay-as-you-go model.

Pash Global, a subsidiary of multinational commodities trader Trafigura Group, has signed a renewables power purchase agreement for a project on the British overseas territory of Saint Helena. The microgrid will help the South Atlantic island’s aim of investing in renewables, reducing diesel dependence and increasing fuel security and price stabilization.

U.K.-based Power Transition today launched a crowdfunding exercise to raise the £300,000 it says it needs to scale up its blockchain-based, peer-to-peer energy trading platform beyond a 47-home demonstration project.

Oil and gas business Repsol has launched Solmatch, the nation’s first large solar community.

Matt Harper, chief commercial officer of newly-merged British-Canadian vanadium redox flow battery business Invinity Energy Systems has spoken to pv magazine about the VS3-022 Battery Unit it is marketing for grid scale solar-plus-storage projects and why it may be a better bet than lithium-ion.