Zimbabwe’s struggle for solar
After several year of stalled and failed projects, Zimbabwe’s government is now seeking to implement existing projects, and to get rid of licensed projects that have never been realized. The first attempt will be pushing forward the 100 MW Gwanda solar project, which had been awarded to Intratek in 2015. The government is further planning to grant incentives to rooftop PV under net metering.
Oman tenders another 1.1 GW of PV
Through a new procuremente exercise, the Oman Power and Water Procurement company (OPWP) is now seeking developers for the Manah Solar I IPP and Manah Solar II IPP projects with a capacity of 500 MW and 600 MW, respectively. Both plants will be located at Manah which is around 150 km southwest of Muscat.
10 GW of utility-scale PV+storage by 2023
In 2019, the United States will become the world’s largest market for grid-connected battery energy storage, writes IHS Markit’s Camron Barati, as solar-plus-storage and peaking capacity requirements drive increased procurement.
Italy to hold first 500 MW renewables auction on September 30
According to the new auction schedule approved by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, three more renewables procurement exercises will be held each year in 2020 and 2021. Through the seven bidding rounds, the Italian authorities seek to allocate approximately 4.8 GW of new power generation capacity.
Portuguese 1.4 GW solar tender with €0.045/kWh ceiling receives 10 GW of applications
Despite a demanding ceiling price of €45/MWh the tender has received applications for projects with seven times the generation capacity it will allocate.
China auction allocates subsidies for 22.7 GW of solar with lowest bid of $0.0407/kWh
China’s National Energy Administration has given the greenlight to 3,921 ground-mounted and distributed generation projects. The approved energy price bids ranged from $0.0407 to $0.080, depending on system size, for an average price of $0.048.
The United States is headed for a battery breakthrough
A new report by the Energy Information Administration projects U.S. installed battery storage capacity will reach 2.5 GW by 2023. Florida and New York are set to pave the way as massive projects in each state will account for almost half the coming capacity.
Global renewables investment fell in the first half of this year
While Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and Brazil attracted more funds than last year, China’s transition to an auction-based procurement system and slow performance overall in Europe saw worldwide backing decrease. BloombergNEF does expect investments to ramp up in the second half, however.
India added 1,836 MW of rooftop solar in last fiscal year
Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were the top five states by annual installation, accounting for 60% of the new capacity.
Morocco opens 230 MW solar tender
The Moroccan agency for sustainable energy is pre-qualifying developers for the Noor Midelt II project, a solar complex incorporating CSP and PV elements.
