Utility Scale PV

Chinese-Canadian module manufacturer Canadian Solar and Italy’s Manni Energy have sold five PV plants with a total generation capacity of 17 MW to Dutch independent power producer Sonnedix. The Sicilian projects are among Italy’s first operational unsubsidized PV facilities.

The airline industry has been among the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic; carriers are in ‘freefall’ as Glen Peters, research director at the Center for International Climate and Environment Research in Oslo recently wrote, with governments mulling stimulus packages for airline bailouts. How we react to the coronavirus outbreak is crucial for society as a whole and the solar and energy storage industries can lead the charge in rewriting the status quo.

Chinese business Sinohydro has secured the contract for a 20 MW solar plant in Gardete, near the city of Bissau. The tender for the project was launched a year ago.

The Renewable Energy Project Development Office has prequalified 49 developers for the tender. Four large-scale solar projects will be built via the procurement exercise.

Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd. has opened bids to develop 700 MW of solar capacity in India.

Norwegian energy producer Equinor and Italian oil contractor Saipem have joined forces to build floating PV projects for near-coastal applications. The two companies plan to use a technology developed by Moss Maritime, a unit of Saipem.

According to SolarPower Europe, local agriculture and solar energy could become the engines of a sustainable European economy. The trade body has created a task force, led by French independent power producer Amarenco, that aims to place agrivoltaics at the top of the European agricultural policy agenda, while also establishing global standards for the segment.

pv magazine has spoken to Germany’s largest solar project developers about how construction has ground to a halt on many PV projects in Europe since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Politicians need to extend implementation deadlines for PV projects that are being built under tender schemes, but deadlines are not the only challenge that companies currently face.

The country’s energy regulator published two papers this week to solicit public feedback on plans that Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe recently submitted for review. The first document relates to the tech-neutral procurement of 2 GW of short-term risk-mitigation capacity, which could see solar emerge as a winner due to its quick deployment times. The second paper is linked to the nation’s Integrated Resource Plan 2019, which aims for up to 6 GW of new large-scale solar by 2030, as well as an additional 6 GW of distributed-generation capacity.

The bailed-out Hong Kong-listed PV developer has warned its remaining independent shareholders of a thumping net loss for 2019 as it prepares to reveal its final results at the end of the month.