SMA to supply Australia’s biggest solar farm
The Western Downs solar farm will deploy German power electronics made in Australia, with SMA announcing that it has picked up a contract to supply the 400 MW (AC) project.
Covid-19 weekly round-up: US job losses raise concern but France and China continued to add new solar
Cell supply shortages could kick-start manufacturing activity in India, EV car sales are braced for a fall while still gaining market share and a new date has been set for the world’s biggest solar trade show.
Solar sweeps the board again in German renewables auction
Not one wind power project was submitted to the German network authority for the April round of a national clean energy procurement program. Almost 204 MW of solar generation capacity was allocated across 30 solar projects with an average final electricity price of €0.053/kWh.
Chinese 202 MW/MWh solar-plus-storage project
Inverter maker Sungrow is supplying the inverters and storage system for China’s largest, 202.8 MW/MWh solar-plus-storage facility. The plant will be connected to a new, 800 kV ultra-high voltage power line.
France added 176 MW of solar in first three months of the year
Quarterly new additions were 15% lower than in the October-to-December window. The France Territoire Solaire thinktank said the lower volumes could be explained by the initial impact of the coronavirus crisis.
China added almost 4 GW of solar in first quarter despite Covid-19
The world’s solar superpower saw the amount of new capacity added in the first three months of the year fall 24% from the same period of 2019 as 1.75 TWh of solar electricity was curtailed, but the National Energy Administration expects both statistics to improve as China exits the public health crisis.
56 MW hybrid wind-solar plant powers up at Australian gold mine
The unique solar, wind, and battery project has been completed at Gold Fields’ Agnew Gold Mine, marking Australia’s largest hybrid microgrid of its kind.
Sunny regions could see one-cent solar within a decade
The solar learning curve usually applied to panel costs has been extrapolated to the larger, non-module element of the price of solar electricity generated by big projects, leading one commentator to predict new solar projects could be cheaper than legacy fossil fuel plants within 10-15 years in certain markets.
Chinese PV Industry Brief: 5.5 GW of PV procurement, new dates for SNEC, and a 200 MW project
Datang Group has launched a bidding process to procure 5.5 GW of PV modules and inverters for its own solar projects. The SNEC trade show in Shanghai has set new official dates, after being postponed in early April due to the Covid-19 pandemic. And Topray Solar is seeking to raise funds for a 200 MW solar project in Guangdong province.
Myanmar launches 1 GW solar tender
The country’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy is seeking proposals for 30 large-scale solar plants. The selected developers will be awarded 20-year power purchase agreements.
