Policy

Thailand’s Electricity Generating Authority has opened a tender for the design, supply, construction and commissioning of a floating solar array to be built at a dam with an existing hydroelectric power station.

A call for the EU’s second cross-border renewables tender has gone out and will remain open until March 4, 2025. Luxembourg is providing €52.4 million ($56.7 million), while Finland and Estonia have committed to installing solar and onshore wind on their territories.

In Germany – but not only there – there is a heated debate about the pros and cons of a capacity market. The German Renewable Energy Association is against it, and recently the German New Energy Industry Association, the DIHK and the EEX energy exchange have also taken a clear stance: Germany does not need a “power plant subsidy program.” In this article, four experts explain why battery storage can also play an important role in a capacity market and make recommendations on how the design of the market can help avoid mismanagement, wrong incentives and unnecessary costs.

In its latest monthly column for pv magazine, SolarPower Europe explains how several European countries are moving away from support schemes for injections and towards the adoption of time-variant supply tariffs, which play a crucial role in reducing daily price fluctuations. This shift challenges the traditional business case for rooftop PV, which often relies on maximizing grid injections.

Growth in Australia’s renewable energy sector is strong with 43 GW of new utility scale generation and storage projects working through the National Electricity Market connection process but concerns remain that uncertainties surrounding approval processes could impact investor confidence.

This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Soledad Andrade, Business Development and Operations Specialist at Spain’s Youdera. She says, in its early days, she was often the only woman in meetings or on-site visits, making it harder to prove her value. However, as more women join the sector, it has become a more comfortable and supportive environment for development and growth.

A new report published by the CSIRO says Australia’s research into solar recycling is second in the world, outside China, but suggests the establishment of mid-stream activities such as the production of metallurgical silicon and polysilicon have big potential.

In a new monthly column for pv magazine, the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) explains why potential trade disruptions in the global PV supply chain are substantially different from those related to coal, oil and gas.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his first speech since forming a coalition government in May, said the nation is experiencing a “renewable energy revolution,” with upcoming projects expected to attract around ZAR 400 billion ($21.9 million) in private investment.

Panama has canceled an auction it announced in February for 500 MW of renewable energy capacity. It would have been the country’s first renewable energy tender in a decade and the first in Central America to include battery storage systems.