large-scale solar

South African consultant and PV expert Chris Ahlfeldt has explained to pv magazine how the impasse of the outstanding PPAs of round 3.5 and 4 of the country’s REIPPPP program may affect solar PV less than other renewable energy technologies. The PPAs relate to twelve large-scale solar projects totaling 813 MW selected in round 4.

In anticipation of possible auctions for large-scale solar and renewables, several projects for PV plants were submitted to the country’s local and central authorities over the past months. The latest of these is a 20 MW facility planned for the municipality of Vidigueira, in Southern Portugal.

The project is expected to be built by local company 4B Solar in three phases by the end of 2022.

The Canadian province’s first pilot solar park will be built by local hydropower producer and utility Hydro-Quebec. The region is also preparing to support solar distributed generation through net metering.

The decree implementing the auction was published in the country’s official journal on Saturday. Solar seems to have more options compared to the previous 3 GW auction, in which only 1.5 MW of PV was contracted.

Brazil’s energy agency EPE has released a new study that recommends the improvement of the transmission system of the northern and north-western areas of the state of Minas Gerais, which is expected to host a considerable portion of the solar projects selected in the country’s auctions held in the past years.

An undisclosed sum was provided by seven different lenders for the 800 MW third phase of the giant solar park.

At the first day of the conference PV Asset Management and O&M Europe 2017, which winds up today in Hamburg, almost all the participants agreed on the fact that the business is becoming more and more complex, and that getting to scale may provide a path through a period of further consolidation.

Construction on the 12 MW solar facility started in February. The plant will be owned and operated by French renewable energy company Quadran.

Interview: Seyed Moslem Mousavi, Chief executive officer of The Iran Renewable Energy Association, revealed that large volumes of grid-connected PV power are expected to come online this year in Iran, and that, however, projects realized with locally manufactured PV modules, which have right to higher FITs, are still missing.