Merchant Solar

Solar forecasting company Solargis says the insight offered by Covid-19 industrial shutdowns into a renewables-driven future serves to emphasize the value of the chief commodity it trades in – data.

Analyst Cornwall Insight said the figure, drawn from its Renewable Pipeline tracker, related only to the proportion of the nation’s 13 GW solar pipeline which had already applied for or secured planning permission.

The announcement by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of an auction which will include solar next year appears to back prime minister Boris Johnson’s claims to be serious about the nation’s net-zero carbon ambition.

The project will operate at a profit in part thanks to an emissions scheme introduced by the province of Alberta on January 1. The plant will be able to sell its carbon certificates.

With the move, the Italian infrastructure fund has raised its operational renewable energy portfolio to 1 GW and secured access to the Spanish market for its EF Solare unit.

A week after the Danish government announced it may stop holding auctions for new solar and wind capacity a 155 MW unsubsidized solar project has been announced for the Jutland region. The plant will initially sell electricity to the Nordpool electricity market but its developers are also considering private supply deals.

German EPC contractor GP Joule is set to begin construction of a 25.4 MW solar plant to sell power on the spot market as part of a diversified plant portfolio. The facility, in the province of Alberta, will expand the increasing list of unsubsidized projects announced in the region in recent months.

The central Italian province of Viterbo has 1,359 MW of solar generation capacity in the development and approvals process. The mass of projects has raised opposition from some locals and developers are in talks with government officials to discuss how concerns can be addressed.

The €29.7 million financing package was awarded by Banco Sabadell. Renovalia’s 79.2 MW solar park will be Spain’s first PV facility to sell all of its output on the spot market.

With a 300 MW pipeline in the country that could potentially double in the near future, the Milanese business says Chile’s carbon-neutral ambition will maintain a strong market for solar.