Markets

The contract figure is based on today’s mono prices and equates to almost 20% of the revenues seen in 2018. The supply deal is the second big order the company has secured in 12 months.

With EV sales continuing their climb, and overall carbon emissions targets getting more ambitious, stakeholders in the energy system will need to consider flexibility options from, among other points, EV charging. A large distribution system operator in the U.K. is now examining the options to remunerate customers for adapting their EV charging patterns to load profiles of the grid. If successful, the exercise may help mitigate grid infrastructure expansion costs.

Analysts have scrutinized the result of the recent A-4 auction which delivered, in theory, the world’s lowest price for solar electricity from an energy procurement exercise. The two plants in question, however, will sell 70% and 50% of their output outside the power deal signed in the auction.

If China could travel back to the 1960s with its 2016 PV generation capacity it could harvest an additional 14 TWh of solar power, according to a study by academics at universities in Switzerland and the Netherlands. With a mixed record for reducing pollution, the country’s solar fleet output appears to be drastically affected by dimmed solar radiation.

The 5.8 MW Sparbanken Skåne Solar Park is in the Sjöbo Kommun, in the southern region of Skåne. The facility is selling more than half its output to the spot market and around a third to Swedish bank Sparbanken Skåne under a 10-year PPA. The rest is being traded on the Nord Pool electricity certificate market for renewable energy in Sweden and Norway.

Swiss equipment supplier Meyer Burger has signed a contract to supply heterojunction cell manufacturing equipment to an unnamed North American manufacturer. The company also posted its preliminary results for the first half, posting a $14 million EBITDA loss but stating it expects to break even for the period after selling its wafer business.

The African continent often generates impressive solar news and offers new angles on renewable energy systems and integration. The 21st Africa Energy Forum, held between June 11 and 14 in Lisbon, explored the various ways in which solar is being rolled out across the continent. pv magazine offers a country-by-country review of some of the Sub-Saharan markets discussed at the event.

Interview: The Energy Charts, developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) shows that the switch from coal to gas in Germany reduced CO2 emissions by one third in June. In a European wide transition, Eurogas General Secretary James Watson considers reductions of up to 45% possible by 2030. The gas sector is also willing to make the transition to renewables and decarbonised gases by the middle of the century. In the case of power-to-gas technologies, medium-term cost reductions which are comparable to the experience curve of photovoltaics is possible, Watson explained.

The IFC and the country’s power utility are planning to build small on-grid solar parks across three to five different sites, and are seeking a project consultant.

UK based energy data service provider and consultancy EnAppSys released its quarterly review of the European energy market. While renewables have covered a large chunk of the continent’s demand, that trend will likely change in the second half of the year, as production from renewables falls. Meanwhile, coal generation is being pushed out of the U.K. market, although not fully to the benefit of renewables as gas-fired power plants are picking up momentum.