Markets & Policy

Two investors backed by the charitable foundations set up by energy giants have seed-funded the cash pot to lend to African solar companies, who will be able to buy solar kit cheaper thanks to the economies of scale offered by the aggregation of orders.

A report has stated the renewable-plus-fossil fuel model is the best short term option to meet the assured supply conditions in the Solar Energy Corporation of India’s round-the-clock power tenders. Further out, as the cost of batteries decline, that technology is likely to become the most viable option for providing critical, non-intermittent power.

Through the Green Electricity Tariff (GET) program, the government will offer 4,500 GWh of power to residential and industrial customers each year. These will be charged an additional MYE0.037 ($0.087) for each kWh of renewable energy purchased.

Ongoing growth in both renewable generation capacity, including rooftop solar, large-scale wind and solar, and dispatchable power in the form of big batteries is expected to drive down household power bills across the National Electricity Market in the coming years despite the impending closure of several of Australia’s ageing fossil-fuel fired power stations.

A new Ernst & Young power and utilities overview report shows that utilities and other deep-pocketed investors are putting financial support behind their environmental, social and governance initiatives.

The energy storage system, which is set to be up and running in around a year’s time, will be supplied by Finnish company Wärtsilä and will provide services including reserve power and frequency control response.

Industry association SolarPower Europe expects little change in the line-up of Europe’s biggest residential battery markets in four years’ time, with a rush of retrofits as turn-of-the-century solar feed-in tariffs begin to expire, set to keep Germany way ahead of the pack.

The scheme provides rebates for installations larger than 3 kW in size provided that the grant does not exceed RON20,000 for conventional projects and RON25,000 for projects in isolated areas.

Swedish power utilities and electricity traders are increasing their efforts to buy surplus solar power from residential prosumers under fair competition conditions, according to analysts from local consultancy Becquerel Sweden. In a conversation with pv magazine, they analyzed the reasons for this new corporate mentality and observed a possible trend for the global solar market.

The Kazakh authorities allocated 20 MW of PV capacity in the procurement exercise and said another 20 MW solar auction will be held next year.