Utility Scale PV

Australian Vanadium Ltd. has appointed a Western Australian engineering company to begin the first stage of what it says will be the country’s first vanadium electrolyte manufacturing plant.

JA Solar published data comparing its own modules, based on the 182mm wafer format, with others utilizing the larger 210mm size over a six month period in field testing. The data show that the smaller of the two formats reached an average daily energy yield almost 2% higher. According to JA Solar’s analysis, the higher currents produced by the 210mm modules led to higher resistance, and more energy lost as heat.

The PPA was awarded by French utility EDF. The facility relies on a 55 MW solar unit, a 16 MW electrolyzer, storage tanks and 3 MW of fuel cells.

Interested developers will have time until October 30 to submit their bids. The tender’s final results will be announced by January 28.

The Algerian authorities aim to launch a new solar tender by the end of October. The procurement exercise will be divided into 10 lots, ranging from 80 MW to 180 MW each. One Algerian think tank has said that it expects prices ranging from DZD 5/kWh ($0.036) to DZD 7/kWh.

Uganda wants to take advantage of its large water resources for renewable energy development. It is now seeking consultants to assess its floating PV potential.

The Turkish government has set a ceiling price of TRY0.40/kWh ($0.045) for the fifth procurement exercise of the Yeka program.

Solar prices have dipped below the cost of wind in contract prices in many parts of the United States, analysis shows.

The Dutch event has attracted bumper crowds this week as the Dutch solar PV market continues to defy skeptics with its tremendous growth.

The solar park will occupy 500ha of abandoned peatland in southern Finland. The project’s levelized cost of energy is estimated at less than €0.04/kWh.