Ivory Coast set to commission first solar plant
Compagnie Ivoirienne d’Electricité (CIE), a utility in the Ivory Coast, is set to inaugurate its first solar plant – a €40 million ($42.6 million), 37.5 MW installation, backed by a 10 MW storage system by Saft.
Croatia investing in storage amid slow solar development
Croatia is preparing to build Eastern Europe’s largest energy storage project. IE Energy has secured €19.8 million ($20.9 million) to develop a 50 MW storage system, potentially extendable to 110 MW by 2024.
Europe added 41.4 GW of new solar in 2022
In another record year for solar, SolarPower Europe estimates PV in Europe grew by 47% in 2022, rising from 28.1 GW in 2021 to 41.4 GW this year. Germany installed the most with 7.9 GW, followed by Spain at 7.5 GW, and Poland at 4.9 GW. For the first time, the top 10 European solar markets all added at least 1 GW.
Sierra Leone’s first 5 MW solar plant powers on
Serengeti Energy has started operations at what it claims is Sierra Leone’s first solar independent power project. The 5 MW solar installation is located in Yamandu, Southern Sierra Leone. A second project phase is planned for 2023, bringing its capacity to 25 MW.
Danish developer acquires 3.6 GW Australian project
Danish renewable energy developer European Energy has acquired a majority stake in a 3.6 GW integrated solar and battery energy storage facility. Being developed in the Australian state of Queensland, the proposed facility will be used as a green hydrogen production plant.
Roadblocks to rooftop solar in India
India is a long way behind its rooftop solar target of 40 GW by 2022, with just 10.4 GW installed through to September this year. To understand the issues, pv magazine speaks to Amplus Solar pv magazine in an interview about factors holding back rooftop solar development in the country.
Testing prairie and pollinator agrivoltaics at a former nuclear power site
A team in the US will create a pollinator habitat under a 160 MW utility-scale solar project and measure changes in energy, soil carbon, and management costs at the site.
California pulls plug on rooftop solar
The California Public Utilities Commission has approved Net Energy Metering 3.0 and has slashed payments to send rooftop solar electricity to the grid. New rooftop solar projects are now considered uneconomical without attached batteries.
Slovenia set to install 258 MW of new solar in 2022
Slovenia’s cumulative PV capacity additions could grow from 466 MW in 2021 to 724 MW by the end of this year. The residential market will account for almost all new capacity, and demand is expected to grow under a net-metering scheme extension until the end of 2023.
Weekend Read: Can Lula deliver on Brazil’s solar hopes?
Brazil’s newly elected government, under Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, will face energy-transition and decentralization issues during critically important years in the fight to curb climate change. Livia Neves reports from Rio de Janeiro.
