EU approves renewables incentives for Greek islands
The European Commission has given its seal of approval to a government program which will drive an estimated 264 MW of solar and wind capacity across 47 islands while they await connection to the mainland grid.
New EU state-aid guidelines exempt solar up to 1 MW from tendering process
In addition, the new CEEAG guidelines allow government and national authorities to hold tenders for specific technology applications, such as floating solar and agrivoltaics.
Three strategic M&A transactions announced in the US
Through three different transactions, AES acquired Community Energy Solar, Stem Inc bought AlsoEnergy, and Enphase took over 365 Pronto.
India added 1.3 GW of rooftop solar in first nine months of 2021
Rooftop installations to the end of September were at their highest for a nine-month period. The nation’s cumulative rooftop PV generation capacity had reached 6.7 GW by that point.
The Hydrogen Stream: Storing hydrogen in offshore caverns
Engie unit Tractebel is developing the technology. Elsewhere, the European Commission has approved, under state aid rules, a €900 million German scheme to support investment in green hydrogen production for EU consumption and Spanish company H2B2 Electrolysis Technologies is developing a project to generate up to 1,000kg per day of electrolytic hydrogen in California.
France announces results of commercial and industrial PV tender
The French government has allocated 324 MW in its latest procurement exercise. Average prices were €76.66/MWh for large power plants (500 kWp-8 MWp) and €87.25/MWh for projects below 500 kWp.
Floating solar array powering recreational park in Vietnam
The 600 kW array was built by Sungrow with 540 W solar panels and its own floating structures.
Solar for railways
Germany’s TÜV Rheinland is investigating how photovoltaics could be used for powering railway traction networks in a 14-month research project.
Financial close for Mozambique’s first solar-plus-storage project
Anglo-Norwegian public funding body Globeleq has said the 19 MWp/2MW-7 MWh Cuamba project will be supplying electricity during the second half of next year.
Israel allocates 1.14 GW of PV across two tenders, lowest price comes in at $0.02751/kWh
The Israeli authorities allocated more than 1.14 GW of PV capacity and 210 MWh of storage across two different tenders. In a first procurement exercise for the 330 MW/210 MWh Dimona solar-plus-storage project the winner was Israeli company Shikun & Binui Holdings Ltd. In another tender for innovative PV projects local developer Prime Energy secured 475 MW with the final average price of $0.0541/kWh.
