Utility Scale PV

Genex Power has signed an offtake agreement with Australian energy giant Stanwell Corp., supporting the development of the first stage of the 775 MW Bulli Creek solar and battery project planned for southeastern Queensland.

Lithuania’s SNG Solar is set to build a 100 MW solar plant in the port of Riga, Latvia. Upon completion, the facility will be one of the largest solar projects in the Baltics.

The practical matter of taking a dead PV system apart and moving its components to their next destination has received less attention than recycling and second-life applications. In the United States, Decom Solar is offering decommissioning for commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects. pv magazine spoke to Decom Solar co-founder Stephen Burns for an update.

Denmark’s Eurowind Energy has signed a deal for 65 MW of solar in central Portugal, split equally between 11 projects. Construction is expected to begin before the second quarter of 2025.

The French energy regulator says in a new report that France allocated about 5.55 GW of PV capacity through its auction mechanism for large-scale solar between 2011 and 2013. Despite falling solar module prices, the auction mechanism did not lead to cheaper PV electricity or lower project costs.

Solevi, a German electroluminescence (EL) inspection company, has launched drone-based electrical inspection services for rooftop solar installation in Germany with plans to automate further and expand geographically.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology researchers have told pv magazine that hydrogen storage pipelines and gravel could become a reality in lakes or water reservoirs in Europe, the United States, Japan, or China within 10 years. “The technology required to implement the proposed system is available, simple and cheap,” they said.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports the Typhoon Yagi caused a significant reduction in solar power generation across key cities in Vietnam, China, and the Philippines, with some areas reporting their lowest irradiance days on record for September.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA) says the island added 2.7 GW of new solar capacity last year, bringing its total capacity to 12.41 GW by December 2023. Feed-in tariffs for installations up to 100 kW continue to drive the market.

Dubai-based developer Amea Power has agreed to build a 1 GW solar plant with a 600 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) and an additional 300 MWh BESS. This follows the signing of two power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Egyptian Electricity Transmission Co.