Installations

Flying in the face of claims the rise of China’s clean energy sector undermines the security of developed nations and harms the profitability of their businesses, a research paper argues such a view is outdated and ill-advised. It presents four opportunities for Western players to tap ‘Green China Inc’.

The 21st Africa Energy Forum, this year in Lisbon, kicked off yesterday and will run until Friday. The meeting offers an insight into the continent’s energy markets.

Three projects with generation capacities of 5.6-6 MW were pre qualified for a 5.6 MW capacity procurement and Finnish utility Fortum secured the only PV project selected. The capex figure offered by solar developers was lower than that for 71 MW of wind power allocated and lower than for previous PV projects.

Boasting 195 MW of bifacial-and-tracking capacity, Scatec Solar is halfway to its planned 400 MW target for the technology combination at the 1.8 GW Benban park. The remainder is likely to come online this year.

Rodrigo Sauaia, CEO of Brazilian solar energy association ABSOLAR, analyzes the chances of PV in this year’s two energy auctions in which it can compete. But it is not all about auctions, Sauaia tells pv magazine, there are 2 GW of solar projects under development for which bilateral PPAs may be signed, and hundreds of MW worth of such schemes that have already secured contracts.

A profit is a profit, even if it amounts to less than $2,000, and the NYSE-listed developer appears to have turned the corner after a $14,700 loss a year ago. Borrowings are on the rise though, as the company plans to drum up an ever larger project portfolio.

Projects with capacity 10-50 MW can compete for grid connection with a voltage of 15-60 kV. Projects applying for a connection with a higher voltage will have to have more than 50 MW of generation capacity.

The government of the Balkan country is tendering several PV projects with a total generation capacity of 25 MW in Sveti Nikole and another 10 MW in Makedonski Brod, all on public land. Another tender, for 27 MW of capacity on private land, will be launched in the coming weeks.

The launch of the U.K. Smart Export Guarantee regime today failed to include a price floor – as predicted by trade body the STA – but the government did not rule out future intervention. Commercial customers, however, still have no way of securing payment for their excess power.

Hello hydrogen! A number of factors are floating renewably powered hydrogen to the top of the agenda for worldwide energy ministers. Australia is among the countries most favourably placed to turn hydrogen hype into the biggest source of decarbonized energy the world has yet seen.