FIT

Despite political hurdles in key markets including China, India and Japan, Asia remains highly active. This year, 59 GW of solar is expected to be installed and due to further system price declines, a phase-out of subsidy schemes can be offset.

The U.K. government has cold-shouldered PV with a row of disfavourable policies, which have put at risk the financial viability of new arrays. In the past few last years, the market has remained almost flat, with installations sitting at around 200 MW per year.

While installations up to 750 kW continue to grow, compared to June, overall capacity slightly decreased. This is due to the fact less utility-scale projects were commissioned in July, compared to the preceding month. Solar subsidies will decrease by another percentage point in September.

While the Greek Government is in the midst of rolling out a successful series of solar tenders, pv magazine examines the country’s net metering scheme, which was introduced in 2014.

Pacifico Energy is set to commence construction on two utility-scale PV projects totaling 112 MW and 72 MW, respectively, while Trina Solar is working on a 29 MW plant.

China’s autonomous province, Hong Kong has officially opened up its feed-in tariff (FIT) policy scheme for solar PV systems.

The U.K. Government is proposing closing both generation and export tariffs for renewables on March 31, 2019. The country’s solar trade association calls for clarity on the policy framework going forward, for both industry and potential investors.

On January 26, 2018, the EAC issued a set of regulations to clarify the general conditions for installing and operating solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in Cambodia. Kohe Hasan, partner at Reed Smith and director of Resource Law LLC (Singapore), and Kaknika Lin, assistant consultant at KPMG Cambodia Ltd provide a summary of the key regulations, in addition to discussing the country’s investment climate.

German firm, ib vogt and Egypt’s Infinity Solar inaugurated first 64.1 MW PV farm in the Aswan Governorate, Southern Egypt this week. pv magazine, which attended the event, reports on the future plans of the two partners, and looks at the Egyptian solar market.

Svitlana Teush, counsel at Redcliffe Partners law firm in Kyiv, Ukraine, discusses the country’s new electricity market design and what it means for renewables. Currently, she says, the renewable energy sector in Ukraine is an attractive investment prospect and has considerable potential for further growth in the coming years.