Installations

The extent of the rapid growth under way in the Australian PV market has been laid out in the latest report by the Australian Photovoltaic Institute. Pointing to 2018 representing “another record year for Australian PV” the outstanding growth of the utility scale segment is a particular highlight – with 1.1 GW commissioned and 1.9 GW under development.

The EPC provider, which is active in the MENA region, announced that it expects a 900 MW pipeline shortly. The company was recently acquired by U.K.-based Arjun Investment Partners and reportedly has increased its staff size by 30% this year. The company cites an increasing interest in asset diversification and good economics as reasons for MENA’s investment in solar PV.

In what marks another major PV project announcement for Vietnam, the Germany-based company will supply equipment for a 258 MW PV system, and commission it upon its completion, scheduled for mid-2019.

India’s solar rooftop sector continues to disappoint, with the first quarter of FY 2018-2019 achieving just 155.77 MW against the 1,000 MW EoY target.

Gogla has released a report showing the positive economic effects of deploying small-scale pay-as-you-go solar systems in off-grid regions. More than half of the survey’srespondents reported having increased economic activity, with many of those starting new businesses or significantly increasing their household income.

At the end of June, Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff ArenA inaugurated Europe’s largest energy storage system using new and second-life energy storage batteries in a commercial building, alongside partners Eaton, The Mobility House, Nissan and BAM. pv magazine attended the event and spoke to those involved. Below is the first in a series of three interviews with the partners, looking at their involvement in the project, and what their future plans are.

Construction works are expected to start soon on two utility-scale solar PV project in New South Wales with a combined capacity of more than 460 MW, as confirmed by German-based Belectric, which will handle the EPC and O&M duties on both sites.

The project connects four to six households, and lets dwellers pre-purchase daily access to electricity using a mobile app. A successful trial phase has just been finished and the executing association, Nanoé Développement has set new goals to reach in the near future.

The South Korean government has revealed plans to introduce new environmental guidelines and rules on where PV projects can be built, following a public outcry after a landslide smashed into an operational solar array south of the city of Daegu.

Colombia’s Celsia is issuing green bonds worth US$145 million to finance its large solar PV project pipeline, while U.K.-based Faro Energy is resorting to clean energy bonds to fund its distributed generation (DG) solar projects across Brazil.