Installations

A report published today by U.K.-headquartered energy company Drax says that, for the first time ever, total generation capacity available from renewables has overtaken that of fossil fuels on Britain’s electric grid.

With the Solar Energy Corporation of India having already proposed 10 GW of solar be located on artificial bodies of water over the next three years, one of its directors has mooted ambitious plans at four more locations.

While the timelines for PV plant execution and completion of the manufacturing facilities required by the tender are now more realistic, production obligations – especially related to capacity utilization – need to be revisited.

Prime minister has announced a tough new renewable energy target, which will build on the current ambition of generating 12% of the nation’s electricity and heat from renewables in little over a year’s time.

After being commissioned in stages, the Bungala Solar Farm near Port Augusta in South Australia is now fully operational. At 220 MW/275 MWdc, Bungala is Australia’s largest solar farm completed to date.

The Spanish developer said that funds from the IPO will be primarily invested in the execution of its 510 MW PV project pipeline.

The target of 105 GW of cumulative installed photovoltaic power, which was originally set for the end of the decade, has already been surpassed. PV Info Link says the 2020 solar target may now be revised upwards to 210-270 GW.

Originally scheduled to be held on Jan. 2, the auction has been delayed to an unspecified date in the third quarter of next year. Colombia’s national mining and energy planning unit UPME has also postponed the publication of final bidding terms at the request of interested parties.

The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) has announced it will expand Phase IV of the 5 GW Mohammed bin Rashid Maktoum Solar Park by another 250 MW. The power utility has also revealed that the PPA with the project developer, local energy giant ACWA Power has been amended, and that the new PV portion of Phase IV, which originally included only a 700 MW CSP power plant planned to sell power at $0.073/kWh, will sell power at a tariff of $0.024/kWh. This price equals that of a 1.17 GW solar project currently under construction in Abu Dhabi.

From a little known niche just a few years ago, floating solar has quickly grown to more than 1 GW of installed capacity worldwide, and a source of great hope for the industry’s future, particularly in countries where space for solar is at a premium. pv magazine spoke with experts from leading floating PV test centers in Singapore and the Netherlands to outline the challenges still faced by floating PV as the technology moves towards major growth.