Installations

Of the 9.65 GW of solar PV China installed in the first quarter of 2018, 7.68 GW comprised distributed generation (DG) systems, reports China’s National Energy Administration (NEA). Changes to the country’s PV policy have also been proposed.

China’s GCL-Poly Energy Holdings has agreed to lend US$110 million to GNE Development, a wholly owned unit of the group.

Four of Nigeria’s federal universities and university teaching hospitals across the country have signed EPC contracts to develop mini-grid solutions, which will power their facilities and disconnect them from the main electricity grid. A total of 9.3 MW of PV and 5,760 battery cells will be deployed.

China continues to grow in importance as a key source of components for solar trackers produced by the world’s leading tracker companies, in part since improvements in Chinese quality control have advanced significantly over the last few years.

In a new report, the association states that urgent action is required for, among other issues, the improvement of solar generation forecasts, the exploitation of storage systems, and the reduction of minimum operation and start-up times for both existing and new thermal and hydro generators.

The alert came from the Dutch Social and Economic Council, which advised the government to invest in, among other things, training more workforce specializing in building and maintaining renewable energy power plants. On the other hand, is a fact that qualified installers are urgently needed to deploy the several GWs of of solar power allocated under the SDE+ incentive program.

The Gujarat state government has approved a 5 GW solar PV park, to be located in the Dholera Special Investment Region. The development of what will become the world’s largest such project when complete, is seen as “crucial” on the back of Bangladesh’s recent interest to procure 2 GW of solar energy from India.

Norway based project developer, Scatec Solar has posted consolidated revenue of NOK 289 million (US$37.1 milion) for the first quarter of 2018, and the company’s EBITDA increased to NOK 212 million ($27.1 million), over the previous quarter’s NOK 207 million. It attributes the improved financials to an increase in development and construction activity.

The Hong Kong government will start discussing plans from early next week to give owners of residential and commercial rooftop solar PV systems the chance to sell surplus electricity to the grid.

The 15 MW project was developed under the Netherlands’ SDE+ program for large-scale renewables.