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Grids & Integration

Solar curtailment vs. storage

Swiss researchers have looked at whether storage could be cheaper than curtailment in medium-voltage distribution networks with significant amounts of PV capacity. They considered storage costs, operational costs, grid constraints, electricity costs, PV generation models, and loads.

Solar-powered cooling solution for off-grid applications

Phaesun and Solar Cooling Engineering have developed a PV-powered cold room for small-scale farmers in Africa. The solution, which has been installed at a farm in Kenya, includes a 2.8 kW solar array and vapor compression heat pumps.

Iberdrola using dogs, robots to monitor solar plants

Iberdrola is using a springer spaniel in a solar park to smell electrical problems that could lead to power cuts. It is also using a robotic dog to detect and analyze faults in substations.

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Kenya to combat rural energy access gap with over 130 solar minigrids

Kenya’s government plans to build 137 solar minigrids across remote locations in the East African country. The project received $150 million in funding from the World Bank.

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Solar, storage system for water treatment in Malawi

RIC Energy has built a 1.3 MW PV array and a 4.5 MWh battery system for two water treatment plants and five water pumping stations in Malawi. The hybrid system will treat enough water to supply more than 200,000 people.

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Sterlite Power commissions 5 GW green energy corridor project in India

Sterlite Power’s Lakadia-Vadodara transmission project will deliver more than 5 GW of electricity from the Indian state of Gujarat to the rest of the country.

Forecasting model to manage renewables-powered grids

Scientists in South Korea have developed a forecasting model to better manage electric grids with high penetration of intermittent renewables. The model was tested using historic data from Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) grid in the United States, and shown to accurately forecast the availability of renewable energy resources up to one day in advance.

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Pumped hydro key to meeting storage demand

Pumped hydro energy storage can be readily scaled to any required storage capacity at a known and affordable cost.

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Inverter sizing guides grid connection, rules US court

The US Court of Appeals has ruled that an 80 MW (AC)/160 MW (DC) solar farm, with 50 MW of battery storage, meets “Qualifying Facility” status of 80 MW (AC) or less under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978.

German machinery unlocks onsite transmission line recycling in Australia

Australian grid operator Transgrid has partnered with German machinery manufacturer Zeck for the use of its innovative steel separation tech. Zeck’s machine can process electricity transmission lines into a recycle-ready state onsite. Previously, Transgrid sent old transmission lines offshore for this process at a much higher cost.