Northern Africa

In an interview with pv magazine, vice president of GoodWe, Ron Shen, talks about the company’s plans for Germany, Spain, Africa and India, in addition to its goal to triple production capacity to 15 GW in China. He also discusses the effect of China’s 31/5 policy change, and plans for an initial public offering (IPO).

The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) has informed all participants of a tender for the deployment of 600 MW of PV capacity in the West of Nile Area that it won’t accept bids exceeding US$0.025/kWh. In its tender for the 200 MW Kom Ombo solar project, the lowest bid, submitted by Saudi energy company ACWA, was $0.02752.

Dr. Ahmed Alami Merrouni, responsible for R&D in Meteorology and Solar Materials degradation at Morocco-based Green Energy Park (GEP), talks about the challenges and opportunities for PV projects in the region. Soiling, he says, is a specific issue, which can impact both ROIs and O&M. In addition to explaining why GEP uses Kipp & Zonen’s DustIQ solution, he says the company is developing new software, which can offer bespoke module cleaning solutions.

The Sahara Desert, and the Sahel region, could be set to take advantage of large-scale wind and solar power projects covering huge surfaces.

An Africa power sector scorecard shows that solar will make inroads into the African energy sector over the next two years, accounting for 9% of new capacity additions, as renewables uptake across the continent continues to grow.

The solar park is set to be built across three phases, and will be located in Tunisia’s southernmost region of Remana, in the Sahara Desert. The project was conceived by the Tunisian Goverment to support organic farming and improve security at the border with Libya.

The U.K. Government says it will make £56 million available for battery storage technologies in South Africa. Nigeria also saw the next phase of the U.K.-Nigeria Climate Finance Accelerator unveiled; while the continent as a whole, is set to benefit from further partnerships and investment in both solar and climate change.

National scheme reportedly aims to drive installation in segments including residential and commercial and industrial facilities.

As pv magazine has learnt, the Saudi energy giant lowered its offer to $0.02752/kWh at the last minute, beating the bid lodged by Spain’s Fotowatio, which offered $0.02791 per kWh.

The lowest bid was submitted by Spanish developer Fotowatio, which offered US$0.02791 per kWh. Slightly higher, at $0.02799 per kWh, was the offer of Saudi power company, ACWA.