Installations

With the announcement of a historic low tariff of Rs 1.38 ($0.019) per unit for a rooftop PV project and a new 1.5 GW solar project, the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has upped its solar game plan.

Responding to recent news reports that Saudi Arabia had abandoned its very ambitious plans to install 200 GW of solar PV by 2030, the country’s Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources (MEIM) issued an official statement saying that the plans are still on track. It also outlined three components of a new power sector transformation plan.

A Canadian investor is planning to build a 150 MW solar plant in the northern part of Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast, which is under the control of the country’s authorities. The project is expected to be located in Rubizhne, a town that was re-conquered by the Ukrainian military forces in July 2014.

EnergyTrend has released a report suggesting that Taiwan is on its track to meet the target of building 20 GW solar PV by 2025. While decreasing module prices makes it easier for investors and stakeholders to achieve this goal, Taiwan’s module manufacturers are struggling to compete with the price developments this year. Many companies in Taiwan will, therefore, turn their eyes to the downstream market, the report claims.

Three seperate tenders will be held for the deployment of large-scale solar plants across three locations, chosen by the Turkish Government. Selected developers will not be required to open a module factory, as in the last tender, but will have to buy at least 60% of the necessary modules from Turkish panel makers. The new maximum price has been set slightly lower than the final price of the previous 1 GW solar auction, held in 2017.

Looking at a scenario, in which the Spanish residential solar market is booming again, energy consultancy, ecoSynergies finds that the energy system could save billions, both in terms of CO2, and fuel and grid costs. Additionally, introducing the EU’s suggestion to fairly compensate prosumers for their surplus energy, would allow households to slash payback times for their solar systems by more than a half. In some cases, the amortization period could go down from 25 to seven years.

Lebanon’s International Beirut Energy Forum (IBEF) 2018, which took place last week in the country’s capital, saw the announcement of various solar tenders that depict the domestic PV sector’s take off.

Selected projects, which have a combined capacity of 338 MW, are scheduled to begin delivering power in January 2022 under a 20-year PPA.

Unlike its three previous funds, which focused on plants in operation, the Spanish asset manager will raise €300 million for the construction of plants without subsidies.

The Commonwealth’s 2018 Energy Plan includes 5 GW of utility scale wind+solar, plus 500 MW of rooftop solar power, less than 1 MW in size, over the next decade.