Installations

The SES Saran solar project is in the Karaganda region. The project was financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and built by German developer Goldbeck.

More than 70,000 Australian households will install battery storage this year, according to the Bloomberg New Energy Finance. With the nation’s storage demand set to triple, Australia is expected to make up 30% of global demand.

The German inverter maker struggled after China’s announcement at the end of May drove down prices and markets around the world and left a clear mark on its figures. Both the commercial PV segment and the storage business fell short of expectations due to delivery bottlenecks.

Richard Branson says the efforts made by one of his companies to roll out PV in the Caymans are part of a wider drive to bring renewable energy to the Caribbean.

In last month’s exercise, final prices were slightly lower than those seen in previous procurements and the total allocated capacity was 196.6 MW. Through the three tenders held by the Japanese government, around 500 MW of solar was assigned, against a target of 1-1.5 GW. Land availability, grid constraints and high labor costs make projects expensive and force developers to use mountainous regions.

Some 8,891 hectares could be allocated through the tender, in the form of 179 plots of land in the northern and southernmost regions of the country.

The global market stagnated last year, with around 98 GW deployed. For 2019, the experts expect stronger solar growth, provided there are no setbacks in China.

The 540 MW project, in Brasileira, will feature 18 units with a capacity of 30 MW each. The developer is Brazil-based Gruppo Interalli and work on the giant plant is expected to start in the second quarter of the year.

Only four days after receiving approval from the European Commission, the French government has issued the tender for 200 MW of ground-mounted solar and a further 100 MW of rooftops at Fessenheim. The government is considering raising a 30 MW size limit for PV projects on degraded land.

Global technology giant Google this week announced that it has signed an agreement to purchase the output from a 10 MW PV installation in Tainan City, Taiwan, to power its Changhua County data center on the island’s west coast. The agreement represents Google’s first move to procure renewable energy anywhere in Asia, and the first agreement made since a recent change to Taiwan’s Electricity Act allowed non-utility companies to buy renewable energy directly.