Markets

Idaho Power has agreed to pay $21.75/MWh for 120 MW of solar power in a 20-year power purchase agreement with Jackpot Holdings. The solar facility will offset a soon-to-close coal plant in Nevada starting in 2022.

It is official: METI has cut the feed-in tariff for Japan’s C&I solar segment by 22% to roughly $0.13/kWh.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has issued an open call to hire a consulting firm to help the government of Azerbaijan to design and launch auctions for renewable energy.

The European Parliament has approved the final four pieces of legislation in a proposal from the European Commission. With that, the Clean Energy for All Package is now complete and is only waiting for support from the Council of Ministers.

In the third in a series of interviews on renewable energy and geopolitics, Indra Overland — head of the Center for Energy Research (NUPI) and a research panel member for the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of the Energy Transition at IRENA — discusses how Saudi Arabia is dealing with the energy transition. He also outlines the challenges the Middle Eastern country will face in the coming decades, as it shifts to a less oil-dependent economy. Although the country recently set new solar and renewable energy targets, Overland believes that the geopolitical balance in the Middle East could shift to countries such as Iran in the coming decades, even if the Saudi commitment to renewable energy proves genuine.

In response to feedback from the domestic renewable energy sector, the Indian government has revealed plans to launch $5 billion of tenders for new transmission lines, starting in phases from this summer.

Global electricity demand rose by 4% in 2018, nearly twice as fast as overall energy demand, as consumption edged up by 2.3%, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Renewables accounted for 45% of the growth in generating capacity.

The Swiss Federal Office of Energy has announced that it will provide an additional CHF 30 million ($30.2 million) to reduce the waiting list for large-scale PV systems. According to local solar industry association Swissolar, however, the government must do more to reduce bureaucratic hurdles for solar energy development. The trade body also claims that the country has the potential to deploy 50 GW of PV capacity by 2050.

The first Solar Power Mexico exhibition was a success, despite being held just weeks after the Mexican government announced the cancellation of its fourth long-term energy auction for renewables, along with general policy-related uncertainty for clean energy.

According to a new report from the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER), distribution system operators should own and operate storage systems only when market-related entities are unable to provide flexibility in accordance with energy regulations.