Auction

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) has launched a smartphone app to help consumers use more electricity at times of high renewable energy availability.

Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is inviting proposals for the development of 1 MW (AC) to 5 MW (AC) solar projects across half a dozen locations in the South Asian country.

Poland’s Energy Regulatory Office has awarded 494 MW of solar in largely unsubscribed auctions this year. It allocated 123 MW for installations smaller than 1 MW with the lowest bid of PLN 284.95 ($71.28)/MWh, and 471 MW for projects larger than 1 MW with the lowest bid of PLN 272.91/MWh.

The Austrian authorities have only used 35% of their 2023 budget for large-scale solar auctions thus far.

Japan’s latest procurement exercise was open to PV projects above 250 kW in size. The lowest price came in at JPY 7.94 ($0.053)/kWh, with 105 MW of allocated capacity.

The Republic of Chad has started accepting applications for a consulting engineer to supervise the construction of a 30 MW (AC) ground-mounted solar power plant – with a 60 MWh storage system, 90 kV line and 90/33 kV substation – near the national capital, N’Djamena.

State-owned Kenyan Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen) is accepting feasibility study applications for the development of a 40 MW floating PV array, backed by German funding.

The European Commission first set up the rules for energy sharing communities in 2018 and 2019, with Portugal rolling out its own legislation soon after. Despite these efforts, five years on there are only three energy sharing communities legally operating in the Mediterranean country, with hundreds more stuck in a year-long regulatory backlog, one local engineer tells pv magazine.

European solar lobby groups have mostly welcomed the European Parliament’s recently supported EU Net-Zero Industry Act, which is aimed at strengthening the region’s renewables manufacturing sector. However, two groups are divided over a clause in the Act that limits tendered project’s from using technology partially made outside Europe.

More than 1 GW of firmed storage capacity is set to be delivered by six winning projects from a recent tender in the Australian state of New South Wales. Akaysha Energy’s 415 MW/1,660 MWh battery in Wellington and AGL’s 500 MW/1,000 MWh Liddell battery are the round’s two biggest projects.