Policy

The scheme will test the potential of distributed energy resources such as rooftop systems, battery storage and controllable load devices aggregated into VPPs to provide scalable energy and network services traditionally performed by large scale, conventional electricity generators. With registration open, the Australian Energy Market Operator wants VPPs to register to accelerate shared learning.

Foresight Solar and Infrastructure has celebrated encouraging returns from nine months of activity but that is down to acquiring existing solar assets with the nation’s ground mount sector in the doldrums since public subsidies were halted in April 2017.

With a 300 MW pipeline in the country that could potentially double in the near future, the Milanese business says Chile’s carbon-neutral ambition will maintain a strong market for solar.

After it deployed a record $1.3 billion into the clean energy sector in a 12-month period, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation said it will sharpen its focus on energy storage and other technologies to support the stability of the national grid.

When the minister of environment and energy announced a ceiling tariff of €45/MWh, analysts speculated the price would be too low as it undercut average bidding prices in the region. Preliminary, unconfirmed results of the exercise show, however, companies are happy to bid for two-cent solar in Europe.

The plan, announced in parliament, is an extension to the bid by the national rail operator to install 1 GW of solar generation capacity during the current fiscal year and hit 5 GW in 2025. The emphasis will be on trackside and static rooftop installations rather than solar train roofs, said India’s minister for railways.

A report by Greenpeace has found in the five years since China announced the continent spanning ‘One Belt, One Road’ infrastructure plan, investment in Belt & Road countries has supported 12.6 GW of wind and solar power generation capacity. That compares with just 450 MW which came online in the territories before 2014. The initiative has also supported 68 GW of new coal capacity.

The U.K. is leaping ahead in its deployment of EV charging infrastructure. Box Energi has chosen Australia’s Tritium Veefil-RT technology to ramp up the number of refill sites around the U.K. in a move which will boost not only accessibility and driving range but confidence in emissions-free driving.

The state-owned China News Service today reported almost $80 million is left in the pot for large scale project subsidies this year despite almost 420 facilities with a combined generation capacity of 1.77 GW having missed out in the auction.

In July 2016 Nigeria signed power purchase agreements with 14 utility scale PV projects with a total generation capacity of 1,075 MW. None of the projects has reached financial close and pv magazine has learned the government wants to reduce the agreed tariffs.