Markets

While Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and Brazil attracted more funds than last year, China’s transition to an auction-based procurement system and slow performance overall in Europe saw worldwide backing decrease. BloombergNEF does expect investments to ramp up in the second half, however.

Already postponed from June to September 30, the procurement will now be held by the end of October. The exercise will be open to new renewables projects with more than 5 MW of generation capacity. Selected developers will be awarded 15-year energy deals rather than the 12-year arrangements offered in February’s abortive attempt.

Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were the top five states by annual installation, accounting for 60% of the new capacity.

The Moroccan agency for sustainable energy is pre-qualifying developers for the Noor Midelt II project, a solar complex incorporating CSP and PV elements.

The head of Mercom Capital says solar has a long way to go before it can stand without policy support. Effective grid parity will only be achieved when the cost of PV electricity factors in the expense of grid upgrades and the storage systems its intermittent nature requires, says Raj Prabhu.

At the end of Vietnam’s solar gold rush, the Chinese power electronics maker can look back on a positive result. With the last glut of project announcements issued, Sunseap said it had finished a 168 MW installation featuring Longi’s Hi-Mo 1 modules.

The kingdom has revealed 28 Saudi entities are among the 60 bidders when the first four projects of the second round of its National Renewable Energy Program are offered up in just over a week’s time.

Increased storage and strategic transmission development will be needed to ensure the most economic and lowest risk transition of Australia’s energy system, the Australian Energy Market Operator said in its latest study. In 20 years’ time, the need for storage will be at a scale not seen before in the national electricity market, and pumped hydro and distributed storage are set to play major roles in lowering electricity prices and building a reliable and resilient power system.

Scientists at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology have demonstrated a system based on commercially available solar panels which can generate electricity and produce clean, drinkable water from seawater or otherwise contaminated sources.

Copper indium gallium selenide thin film technology is on the fly as conversion efficiency closes in on that of crystalline silicon. The technology can be integrated neatly onto facades of otherwise energy intensive commercial buildings. The potential is huge even if the conversion efficiency retains some limitations.