After a tough 2018, US solar is getting ready for a major boom
Definitive data from analyst Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association show tariffs taking a bite out of the U.S. market, but also a near-record number of new projects under contract.
Eni uses solar to power oil and gas fields in Pakistan and Tunisia
The Italian energy company has started construction of a 10 MW solar plant at its Bhit gas field in Pakistan and a 5 MW facility at the ADAM oil concession in Tunisia. It has also begun work on a 30 MW solar plant at its industrial site in Sassari, Italy.
The hurdles in the way of Spain’s rich solar promise
On Thursday, PV conference organizer Solarplaza and Spanish solar association UNEF will host the Solar Market Parity conference in Madrid. pv magazine’s Pilar Sánchez Molina will participate in the Vision of the future: Spain in 2030 panel.
The weekend read: A battery and inverter powerhouse
In December, pv magazine met SolaX Power president Li Xinfu and his team at the company’s headquarters in sprawling Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province. The region is a hotspot for the Chinese PV industry and SolaX belongs to the cutting edge of Chinese inverter and residential battery manufacturers.
Norway saw 23.5 MW of solar come online in 2018
Despite the small figure, last year saw the nascent Norwegian PV market expand 29% from the previous year. The country’s cumulative installed PV capacity reached approximately 68 MW at the end of December.
World Bank provides $185m for 310 MW of renewable capacity in Bangladesh
Multilateral lender hopes to leverage $212 million more from the private sector as falling solar development costs make renewables more attractive. A solar plant with a 50 MW capacity in Feni will be one of the first to benefit from the new funds.
Utility pays for rural power lines to be replaced with solar-plus-storage for remote farms
Western Australia’s state-owned utility Horizon Power is preparing to roll out 13 solar and battery technology units at 14 far-flung farms in the Esperance region.
Global solar demand reached 104 GW in 2018
According to new figures released by SolarPower Europe, last year saw 1.4 GW more new solar generation capacity than trade body had expected. Lower demand in China was compensated for by stronger developments in emerging markets.
France changes tender rules for innovative PV
After receiving approval from the European Commission in November, the French government has now published new rules for tenders assigning a fixed tariff to solar projects that use innovative technologies such as new cells and modules among others.
Floating PV offers alternative to grid outages in South Africa
A 60 kW floating array was deployed by New Southern Energy at the reservoir of a fruit farm near Franschhoek, in the Western Cape Province. A second phase of the project will also include storage.
