Installations

The Dutch parliament has approved a motion made by the governing coalition to restrict construction of large scale solar plants on agricultural land but has watered down its provisions. Under the legislation, solar parks will only be permitted on agricultural land in areas where no smaller alternative projects are viable.

Although only four PV plants with a combined capacity of 150 MW were grid connected by mid-April, the Vietnamese government expects another 88 FIT-entitled solar facilities to come online by the end of next month. By Sunday, 34 projects with a combined capacity of 2.2 GW had already arrived on top of the mid-April connections.

Renewable energy investment in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding China, will overtake spending on oil and gas exploration and production by 2020, finds Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy. And Australia is set to emerge as one of the leading investment destinations.

With Narendra Modi’s government stunning pollsters with another huge win, the solar industry expects renewable power momentum to be maintained with steps including anti-dumping duty on solar module imports, a national policy for rooftop solar and an emphasis on easing private-sector participation in the power sector.

In the first five months of the year, 16 solar projects with generation capacities larger than 99 MW were approved by the Colombian authorities. One of the projects may reach a 700 MW capacity, another has 240 MW and five more can generate up to 200 MW as around 3.55 GW of PV capacity has been added to the national pipeline.

In a series of statements to pv magazine, South African panel manufacturer ARTsolar has explained why it recently filed a petition to request the introduction of import tariffs on solar modules from other countries. The company claims such a measure is needed to save real jobs and retain the technological expertise of the country’s PV industry.

The two companies have glued 230 square meters of solar film to the rough concrete surface of a grain silo in Donauwörth, Germany. The film is expected to generate approximately 6,700 kWh kilowatt-hours of solar power per year. Lechwerke and Heliatek want to open up new potential for the use of PV on other surfaces with the pilot project.

The Ademe has identified 17,764 sites that could help France’s ambitious solar plans to materialize. Many neglected areas that are suitable for solar are old deposits of hydrocarbons, but parking lots also offer an additional 4 GW of potential.

The canceled tender was seeking investors for the construction of two 50 MW PV plants, as part of a joint venture with local utility BPC. The new tender will focus on independent power producers.

A group led by the Singapore-based lender has revealed plans to finance a 30 MW solar project in northwestern Peninsular Malaysia. The companies did not disclose additional details about the financing package.