Installations

Italy’s main solar event, the Key Energy fair held in Rimini, demonstrated the continuing importance of rooftop PV for Italian renewables but also promised a gradual return for large scale solar. Industry insiders are hoping for at least one gigawatt of solar next year, on top of a projected 600 MW this year.

State energy minister Nilesh Cabral says householders will be offered the chance to reduce energy bills without any upfront cost by leasing roofspace to installers as part of plans to add 15 MW of solar capacity in Goa by March.

The U.S. company’s transformation from solar manufacturer to the second-largest residential PV company in the nation is complete after it spun off its high-efficiency cell and module production unit into a new entity, in partnership with Chinese wafer maker TZS.

With hundreds of homes and businesses having received solar-plus-storage systems and monitoring equipment, an algorithm is managing a market for flexibility and capacity in Cornwall. Homeowners with storage can place bids to sell energy from their systems to the distribution system owner on an intraday basis.

A new handbook published by the World Bank and Solar Research Institute of Singapore contains advice on how to plan and build floating PV. The guide is intended to help developers with site identification; feasibility studies; finance; environmental and social issues; procurement and construction; and operations and maintenance.

The company says its network is the largest fleet of batteries under virtual power plant management worldwide.

Grid operator Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne has published figures demonstrating the country had 1,007.2 MW of solar at the end of September, with 600 MW of new PV coming online in the first nine months of the year. The Polish government expects total capacity to reach 1.3 GW this year.

A project on Isabela Island in Ecuador’s Galapagos archipelago has given its 3,500 inhabitants energy generated by local resources, including plant oil produced on the continent. Preferable to a logistically challenging and hyper expensive extension of the mainland grid, if the $13 million island system were installed today, it would be cheaper than when it was contracted four years ago.

A 20 MW solar park is planned near a Stockholm highway to generate power for a tenants association. The project is expected to generate cheaper power than grid electricity and will also trade clean energy certificates on the Swedish-Norwegian market.

The discussion about wind damage in PV structures is getting louder and more heated, especially with rapid single-axis tracker growth in many markets. Whether it’s social media comments on failure photos, or one side of the profession taking shots at another in the press, the dialogue is at risk of becoming cynical. Simon Hughes, partner at technical and commercial energy consultancy Everoze, shines a light on four things that need to happen next, as well as the need for more dialogue between stakeholders.