Special PV plant design for livestock in Taiwan
Taipower is experimenting with PV installations on grazing land for cattle, with the support of the Taiwan Council of Agriculture. The modules have been installed at a height of 3 meters, so the cows can graze beneath them.
PV plant providing grid ancillary services in Chile
Chile’s National Electric Coordinator has granted approval for a new First Solar PV project to supply auxiliary grid services on a commercial basis. The installation has performed better than gas turbine technologies.
Western Australia’s largest PV project now operational
Risen Energy’s 132 MW Merredin Solar Farm has been connected to the Western Australian grid.
China Three Gorges buys 570 MW of Spanish solar
The power company has won the race to acquire a 572 MW, 13-project solar plant portfolio owned by Madrid-based, Canadian-U.S.-controlled developer X-Elio.
Erdogan opens ingot-to-module solar factory in Ankara
The $1.4 billion cost includes a 1 GW solar field 260km away in Konya. The factory was developed solely by Kalyon Solar Technologies after development partner Hanwha Q-Cells walked away from the project.
Japan’s struggle to drive down renewables costs
A nation famous for high electricity prices has seen power costs fall 15% this year, according to analyst Wood Mackenzie, a figure which will help attract $100 billion of solar and wind investment to 2030. Renewables will have to work even harder, however, to displace fossil fuels in hydrogen production.
Modi loosens the purse strings to help India’s struggling state utilities
Covid-19 hits to demand and bill payment collection have worsened the plight of the nation’s already debt-crippled power distribution companies, prompting the government to order an exceptional relaxation of lending limits.
Covid-19 weekly round-up: Differing opinions on energy storage fall-out, a trade show update and some surprisingly positive financials
Negative second-quarter updates from China and uber-low new-solar figures from India, however, show the world is far from out of the woods yet.
India could add 2.5 GW of big solar in second half
Some 1 GW of utility scale project capacity was added to the end of June.
The ‘rubber-band effect’ on renewable energy project margins
David Riester of Lacuna Sustainable Investments, looks at how, on the journey from concept to monetized power plant, renewables and energy storage projects tend to get tugged toward ‘zero’ margin, from either direction. The further the rubber band is stretched, the stronger the pull back toward zero.
