Utility Scale PV

The poly maker’s project development business has entered a sale and leaseback deal for a 140 MW project that will bring in a financial lift in the short-term but cost more than $31 million over nine years.

The Tokyo-based renewables developer is constructing a 102.144 MW (DC) array on a former golf course west of Osaka in the city of Ako. It expects to connect the project to the grid in spring 2021.

The state grid operator reported breaking 11 GW of instantaneous power from large scale solar on Saturday at 1.50pm. Just 20 minutes earlier, the CAISO grid was exporting a record 1.5 GW of electricity, and last Wednesday it hit 93% clean electricity for a moment.

The African property developer has completed a 1 MW rooftop PV array at an industrial park in Nairobi. The installation is its first solar project in Kenya and part of a planned 30 MW rollout at Tatu City, its new mixed-use development in the capital.

The NEA has offered a broad hint that RMB3 billion will be made available in incentives this year – including RMB750 million for residential PV. Roth Capital Partners says achieving 40 GW of new capacity will hinge on timely action by the National Energy Administration.

With Narendra Modi being tipped to triumph again in the current Indian elections, Indian solar capacity is expected to grow robustly, at 15.3% per year, on the back of continued strong government support.

Solar could meet approximately 68% of global energy demand with other renewables making up the rest, according to a new report. A 100% renewable energy system could also create 22 million solar jobs by 2050, the study claims. Keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees C, though, would require FITs for projects up to 40 MW in capacity, auctions for bigger systems, removing fossil fuel and nuclear subsidies and providing more education and R&D and less red tape.

Hawaiian Electric Companies has laid out plans to source the equivalent of 135 MW of solar and 1,378 MWh of energy storage – as well as load shifting and frequency response from distributed energy resources through aggregators.

Indian developer Avaada Energy has raised the funds from the Asian Development Bank and European development institutions. The PV business will finance 2.4 GW of the 5 GW of solar capacity it hopes to secure over the next two years.

Although details are vague, the Vice Ministry of Alternative Energies is reportedly developing the country’s first medium sized projects to be connected to the national grid. It is also planning to implement distributed generation projects ranging in size from 1.5 MW to 3 MW in the crisis-torn nation.