Installations

Mercom Capital’s latest report on financial activity in the solar sector illustrates an increasing flow of capital towards downstream companies and PV projects – as well as a split between China and the rest of the world.

The German car giant has created Elli, a subsidiary that will provide green power and charging solutions for the EV sector. Volkswagen – still haunted by the diesel emissions scandal – says it wants to make mobility sustainable.

The funds will be used to implement the Sindh Solar Energy Project, a scheme aimed at increasing solar power generation and access to electricity in Sindh province.

In the final days of 2018, Australia’s New South Wales government gave its tick of approval for the construction of the state’s largest solar farm to date, rounding off a year that saw a flurry of utility-scale solar construction activity and an unprecedented number of big solar additions in the state.

The Dutch PV sector is expected to have grown by 1.3-1.5 GW in 2018. The growth, which marks the Netherlands’ entry into Europe’s gigawatt club, was mainly due to the connection of large-scale projects under the SDE+ program. The nation’s cumulative installed PV capacity should have surpassed 4 GW as the Dutch government prepares to reduce the SDE+ budget.

In the wake of a COP24 climate change conference which emphasized the need to wind down fossil fuel exploitation rapidly, Kuwait is turning to PV as a sustainable solution – of ramping up its oil production.

The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has proposed a replacement for the flat rate FIT payment regime that is hard to argue with, as it is linked to the actual amount of electricity exported back into the grid.

Of that colossal sum, 350 GW would be for solar. India currently has installed renewable energy capacity of 75 GW with a further 46 GW under implementation.

The United Nations Development Program wants consultants for Iraq’s PV policy, aimed at helping the Ministry of Electricity in the construction of utility-scale solar plants, as well as in the deployment of 5 MW of residential PV. Frost and Sullivan forecasts around 5 GW of solar capacity may be installed by 2028.

According to a Swiss research team, PV technology may take advantage of high Alpine regions to increase generation during winter months when electricity is most needed. On snow-covered mountains, solar panels may have a better yield if their placement takes into account high winter irradiance and ground-reflected radiation and steeper-than-usual panel tilt angles.