Markets

Netherlands trade body Holland Solar has asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy for an extension of grid-connection deadlines for solar projects being built under the SDE+ incentive program for large scale renewables. The association also urged Dutch municipalities to keep processing permits.

The International Renewable Energy Agency has devised a valuation framework to lay the foundations for successful storage deployment. As the technology matures and moves toward a projected fall in price, revenue stacking will be crucial to assess viability and properly value its benefits.

Byron Bay-based solar retailer Smart Energy says it is seeing an unprecedented surge in sales and enquiries for solar and home energy storage as consumers look to shore themselves up in uncertain times.

Chinese manufacturer Risen Energy will supply Malaysia’s Tokai Engineering with 20 MW of its new panels, unveiled in December. Risen claims its products can help reduce balance-of-system project costs by 9.6% and the levelized cost of energy by 6%.

The meeting planned yesterday to open the final bids by consortia vying to develop the 1.5 GW Al-Dhafra solar field in Abu Dhabi was reportedly postponed because coronavirus-related restrictions on public gatherings in the emirate. The chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy told pv magazine this year the project would bring a new low price for solar power.

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory examined five-year data to observe the most common system failure points and how to prevent them. Researchers considered residential, commercial and utility scale plants and found interesting results. While failures cannot be avoided completely, a key takeaway was that close monitoring and timely repair can effectively mitigate the financial effects of failures.

According to data released by analyst Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association, the U.S. added more than 2.8 GW of residential solar last year. Cumulative operating PV capacity now tops 76 GW.

U.S.-owned analyst Wood Mackenzie expects solar demand to decline but predicts the market will recover, with the prospects for the energy transition remaining intact.

The country’s top appeals court has dismissed the Coal Transporters Forum’s long-running effort to nullify 2.3 GW of power purchase agreements which financially troubled utility Eskom signed with solar and wind developers in the country’s fourth national tender round years ago.

Despite the country’s difficult struggle with the COVID-19 outbreak, the Italian solar market is sending some encouraging signs. Italian lender Intesa San Paolo has awarded a €55 million credit facility to Canadian Solar for a portfolio of 12 unsubsidized solar projects.