Installations

The plant is being developed by German company Droege Energy as an unsolicited IPP project. The electricity produced by the floating array will be bought by local utility Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Limited (ESCOM).

After a power purchase agreement for a 125 MW solar project was announced in February, similar deals appear to be cropping up. Danish PV analysts, however, warn of the potential risks of such a model and say the green commitments of big electricity consumers may not be enough to spur growth in the segment.

The country’s PV market has heated up, a fact reflected by the number of applications submitted to the energy regulator seeking a license to generate electricity.

As India awaits the results of the world’s largest democratic election on Thursday, and the EU begins to go to the polls on the same day, pv magazine Australia considers the “miracle” victory by a right-wing Liberal-National coalition in Australia at the weekend, and finds the nation’s solar sector has little reason to rejoice.

The Kazakh state-owned national atomic energy company has sold its three manufacturing units to an international consortium. The sale of its solar business has been planned since May 2017.

The Spanish developer has acquired the Tacna Solar and Panamericana Solar projects which it developed and built for X-Elio in 2012.

The body responsible for the installation of more than 4 million residential PV installations has asked its government masters to provide interest-free financing for its program and Dhaka is considering the proposal.

The government has finally issued a net metering scheme for solar systems not exceeding 10 kW of generation capacity – the country’s first attempt to support small scale PV. New rules for larger, unlicensed projects have also been introduced, with the size limit for eligible systems raised to 5 MW.

The Portuguese government has approved legislative amendments that it says will facilitate its plans to auction off 1.35 GW of solar capacity this summer. The Portuguese energy minister, meanwhile, said that the government hopes to see €6 billion of investment in solar by 2030.

In a recent survey, DNV GL found that demand for blockchain-related skills in the solar sector is 50% higher than in other energy industries, while 33% of respondents said that the use of drones is having a significant impact on their businesses. However, the solar industry needs a common framework to help advance digitalization further.