Utility Scale PV

Gas and electricity company APA Group has launched Australia’s largest remote-grid solar farm, announcing the official opening of the 88 MW Dugald River Solar Farm in outback Queensland.

By agreeing to limit exports to the grid at peak generation hours, distributed energy resources like rooftop solar and energy storage can now avoid delays and costly infrastructure upgrades.

Morocco has allocated 1 million hectares for green hydrogen projects as part of its national energy strategy. The country initially plans to provide 300,000 hectare to private investors, divided into lots of 10,000 to 30,000 hectares.

Engie has deployed a 139 MW/638 MWh battery in northern Chile. The storage project is connected to the 181.2 MW Coya solar plant in the Antofagasta region.

Japan’s feed-in tariffs (FITs) for this year will range from JPY 9.5 ($0.06)/kWh to JPY 16/kWh, depending on system size. The Japanese government also says it will hold four more auctions for solar projects above 250 kW this year.

In addition to the cost of electricity, the price of hydrogen depends largely on the up-front investment cost of the electrolyzer. The lower the full-load hours, the greater the impact. Analyst BloombergNEF (BNEF) sees a number of different possible pathways for the market to develop.

EDP Renewables has activated 202 MW of solar capacity in Portugal. The plant, in the district of Lisbon, was awarded to the company in the country’s inaugural solar energy auction. It is the company’s largest solar facility in Europe thus far.

By adding the PVA-1500 Series I-V curve tracer to its portfolio, Fluke now offers tools for solar professionals servicing everything from distributed-generation arrays to utility-scale projects.

Japan’s Shizen Energy has acquired all shares of renewable contractors juwi Shizen Energy and juwi Shizen Energy Operation, its two joint venture companies with Germany’s Juwi GmbH.

Storage Drop has secured a grant from the European Union to develop its PV-driven cooling system technology for low temperature environments. The system is based on compressed air energy storage technology and a hydraulic isothermal compressor with a water pump that compresses the air in an isothermal process.