Coal India tenders 20 MW of captive solar
CIL Navikarniya Urja, a unit of Coal India, has tendered an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for a 20 MW, grid-connected solar plant for captive consumption in India.
Inverter sizing guides grid connection, rules US court
The US Court of Appeals has ruled that an 80 MW (AC)/160 MW (DC) solar farm, with 50 MW of battery storage, meets “Qualifying Facility” status of 80 MW (AC) or less under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978.
BayWa re unit completes floating PV plant in Austria
BayWa re’s ECOwind subsidiary and Austrian energy supplier EVN have finished building a 24.5 MWp floating PV plant in Grafenwörth, Austria. They claim it is the biggest such installation in Central Europe.
Storage key to Portugal’s solar targets, says GlobalData
The isolation of Portugal’s electrical grid is hindering the growth of renewables, according to GlobalData’s latest report. Storage will play a pivotal role if the country hopes to achieve its solar and renewable installation goals, it says.
What PV installers expect in 2023
Solar module prices continued to fall in January, and there is no end in sight. The main drivers impacting prices are lower shipping rates from China and the further recovery of the euro-US dollar exchange rate. Martin Schachinger, of pvXchange, expects other effects, such as slowly falling energy costs or polysilicon and wafer prices – which are in freefall – to further strengthen the trend in the coming months.
Developers accelerating construction of large-scale solar across Africa
The Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA) has identified the top five solar markets in Africa. Its latest report also looks at the most notable large-scale projects across the continent.
Photovoltaic electolyzer with shingled solar panels, anion exchange membrane
Scientists in Belgium have designed a solar-powered electrolyzer that uses standard-sized, large area shingled silicon PV for water splitting. The system is reportedly able to achieve solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 10% at electrolyzer current densities of approximately 60 mA cm−2.
Only5mins! – Year of change for Slovenia’s PV market
Nina Hojnik, the director of the Slovenian Photovoltaic Association, speaks to pv magazine about new provisions for large-scale solar in Slovenia. She discusses several regulatory obstacles to developing agrivoltaics, as well as plans to phase out net metering for rooftop PV.
Impact of single-axis agrivoltaics systems on non-irrigated grassland
US researchers are studying how agrivoltaic systems mounted on single-axis trackers affect rainfall and light redistribution at a 1.2 MW installation on grassland in Boulder, Colorado.
UK added 555 MW of new solar in 2022
The United Kingdom hit 14.3 GW of cumulative solar capacity by the end of last year, according to provisional government data. New solar capacity grew by 4% year on year, with the rooftop PV market accounting for most of the new installations.
