Utility Scale PV

The government has suggested PV plant operators accept a ‘voluntary’ 12.5% reduction in feed-in tariffs. If developers refuse, policymakers could impose 15-25% cuts, albeit with payment contracts extended five years. The drastic measures are being considered to reduce the cost of the state-owned Guaranteed Buyer body, which purchases all electricity generated in Ukraine from renewable energy facilities.

Galp Energia aims to develop a sustainable power project portfolio based on solar and wind. It will devote up to 15% of its total investments to its renewable energy plans.

The Australian network regulator has ignored pleas from some of the biggest solar and wind project owners in Australia to change the way marginal loss factors (MLFs) are calculated. While it has acknowledged that transmission has failed to keep pace with renewable energy investment, it did not offer any suggestions on what should be done to ameliorate the problem.

Former surface mines in central Appalachia could be re-purposed for solar. Environmental group The Nature Conservancy is exploring the options.

The developer of the material, US-based specialist Pellucere, says its innovation can raise PV energy yield 3.5-4.2%.

Researchers at MIT say the immense hydropower resources of the Canadian province could be used as storage to even out the supply of intermittent renewables generation in New England and New York state.

The Japanese conglomerate will buy Chenya Energy for an undisclosed sum. The Taiwanese developer has a 270 MW solar project pipeline on the island.

The Norwegian solar manufacturer is readying the 72-cell version of its Alpha Series heterojunction module for the factory floor.

Researchers in Thailand are proposing a wireless monitoring solution for PV in remote locations. The system, based on global standard ZigBee 2.4 GHz wireless technology, can read data and tilt solar panels in auto and manual modes.

The ceiling price for solar and wind power has been set at €84.98/MWh. It is expected around 30 MW of generation capacity will be allocated and solar projects ranging in size from 100 kW to 2 MW will be entitled to participate.