South Africa launches tender for floating, ground-mounted PV
The South African government is looking for independent power producers to build and operate floating or ground-mounted PV projects at selected government waterworks infrastructure or damns. The projects should be operational for 20 years.
Enel starts building 170 MW of agrivoltaics in Italy
Enel Green Power says it has started working on the largest agrivoltaics plant in Italy. It will feature bifacial PV modules mounted on trackers. Olive trees will grow around the solar panel rows.
Germany added 1.62 GW of PV in January-February period
Germany’s grid authority has reported that the country added 874 MW of solar in January and 746 MW in February.
Gensol Engineering acquires Scorpius Trackers
Gensol Engineering has acquired Indian solar tracking specialist Scorpius Trackers for $16.42 million.
FERC says 1,700 GW of US renewables still awaiting interconnection
The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) says that just 86 GW of power projects based on fossil fuels are awaiting interconnection, while 1,700 GW of solar, wind, storage remain delayed.
Qcells announces new US solar encapsulant factory
Hanwha Advanced Materials Georgia has agreed to supply EVA encapsulant film to Qcells, in addition to supporting Qcells’ plans to develop a fully integrated solar supply chain in the United States.
Meyer Burger aiming for EU funding to hit gigawatt scale
Swiss PV manufacturer Meyer Burger hit its 321 MW production volume target last year, and its expansion into the gigawatt scale is already underway, as it recently completed two additional purchase agreements with major customers. It has also applied for hundreds of millions of funding support from the EU Innovation Fund, with a final decision to be made in the summer.
Assessing the area intensity of PV
Solar is wrongly perceived by some people to be an area-intensive energy generation technology requiring much more space than conventional fossil-fuel power plants.
China installed 20.37 GW of PV in January-February period
China reached a cumulative installed PV capacity of 314 GW by the end of February, according to new figures from the National Energy Administration (NEA).
New Zealand moves forward with 8.5 TWh pumped hydro project
The New Zealand government will investigate the viability of establishing a pumped hydroelectric facility on the South Island. The project could provide up to 8.5 TWh of annual generation and storage capacity to support the nation’s transition to 100% renewable electricity generation.
