Policy

The legislation would enshrine a customer’s right to generate and store electricity as well as to connect to the grid without undue burden and would provide freedom from discriminatory fees and set compensation for battery power exports.

The Italian PV market grew 7% last year with new capacity additions of 437 MW. Of that figure, only about 47 MW was for installations larger than 1 MW – a clear sign rooftop PV is still driving demand.

The International Renewable Energy Agency has examined how common ground between sectors; digitalization; and technological innovation can transform the energy system and lower the cost of renewables. Storage technologies such as behind-the-meter applications, utility-scale storage and power-to-x are working in the right direction and much can be learned about digitalization from other sectors.

As national elections approach, prime minister Narendra Modi has signed off a huge check to finance national programs to subsidize household and community PV and to drive solar pump deployment in the nation’s fields.

Projects not encompassed by the new, central-subsidy-free, ‘grid-parity’ regime will be eligible to bid for a government subsidy. But, at a reported $446 million, the pot is not very big.

As national utility Eskom faces a financial and operational crisis, rumors are spreading that the government may ask independent power producers to renegotiate the tariffs of PPAs awarded in the first two rounds of its renewable energy program. South African solar association SAPVIA has already given short shrift to the idea.

With the transition to an auction procurement mechanism under way, Japan is this year set to expand the range of projects subject to the tender system from 2 MW-plus to 500 kW and above. With certain FIT cuts for projects with more than 2 MW capacity set to take effect in the second half of the year, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has now proposed reducing tariffs for 10-500 kW commercial PV systems.

The two nations have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a third power link connecting their electricity systems. The news will again initiate hope for the transfer of solar energy from Africa to Europe, but is that hope justified?

Last year’s trend continued in the first 2019 round of PV tenders. The average final price was €0.0480/kWh. Almost all the selected projects will be on arable land in disadvantaged areas of Bavaria.

Plans were broadly sketched out in the nation’s twelfth five-year plan, in 2008. Since then China’s Defense Science and Technology Bureau has supported key technology research. An initial, megawatt-scale project is planned in the stratosphere sometime in the 2021-2025 period.