Markets

The new generation facility was financed by the Asian Development Bank and built by Chinese company ZTE Corp. The project will sell power to the grid for $0.065/kWh, a record low for solar in the country.

Indian module manufacturers are gearing up for an end-of-year surge in solar project procurement and hoping their investments in incorporating global manufacturing benchmarks will translate into enhanced sales.

Research from Finland’s Aalto University claims the residential cooling sector could sustain 540 GW of solar generation capacity if the world’s air conditioning systems were solar powered. Academics say synergies between PV and the cooling industry will become stronger as demand for the latter shifts nearer the equator, where seasonal differences in weather are less pronounced.

With Kuwait, Qatar and even renewables laggard Saudi Arabia following in the wake of regional clean energy pioneer the UAE, a raft of huge solar tenders is entering the Middle Eastern project pipeline. Obstacles remain to overseas project developers but significant rewards are on offer.

Technical consultancy DNV GL has published its Energy Transition Outlook 2019. While the electric vehicle, storage and renewable energy industries are likely to see significant rises in demand, the sobering conclusion is the world will miss carbon reduction targets by a long shot.

The exercise will be open to PV projects ranging in size from 200 kW to 5 MW.

On the first day of this year’s EU PVSEC conference, veteran solar researcher Pierre J Verlinden won the Becquerel Prize for Outstanding Merits in Photovoltaics. The award recognized more than 40 years as a leading PV researcher in academia and at leading companies including Sunpower and Trina Solar. Its recipient spoke to pv magazine about what is needed from solar to stave off catastrophic climate change.

The nation’s cabinet has approved new contracts for solar projects under net metering rules across several regions. Investments include solar micro-grids for disconnected areas, grid-tied installations and hybrid projects.

Some 29.7 GW worth of PV project capacity will compete in the procurement on October 18. Selected solar projects will have to begin delivering power in 2025 and will be awarded a 20-year power purchase agreement.

The Italian energy company has committed to paying higher returns on today’s fundraising bond if it fails to ramp up its installed renewable energy generation capacity to 55% of its overall total by the end of 2021.