renewable energies

Although the Italian solar market registered an 11% drop in new PV installations in the first eight months of 2018, by the end of the year, it will likely surpass 20 GW of cumulative installed solar power. No large-scale PV facilities have been grid connected so far this year, but monthly average growth remains in line with that of the previous two years.

Funds totaling €36.7 million have been awarded by Germany’s development bank KfW and the European Union. The project is set to be located in Boundiali, in the northern part of the Sub-Saharan country.

While a large floating solar power plant is being planned in Ukraine, within a huge renewable energy complex at the water reservoir Kakhovka, the Asian Development Bank has targeted Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, and the Kyrgyz Republic as three countries possessing strong potential for this emerging technology.

The realization of Egypt’s 1.8 GW Benban solar complex has posed a long series of challenges to its numerous developers. The creation of the Benban Solar Developers Association (BSDA) has helped move the project forward amid initial grid constraints and several logistical issues, among others. Although only one of the 33 projects has now reached completion, all are set to be grid-connected by June 2019 – the final deadline set by the Egyptian government, according to Assem Korayem, a member of the BSDA and the operating general manager at Access-Power Egypt. In a conversation with pv magazine, he provides an extensive update on the current status of the huge PV complex.

Overall, the United Kingdom reached a cumulative installed PV power capacity of 12.93 GW as of the end of August. Around 45% of this is represented by solar parks exceeding 5 MW in size, while another 20% come from residential installations up to 4 kW. Newly installed PV capacity for the first eight months of this year was just 155 MW.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development of the Sub-Saharan country is currently seeking advice for its Decentralized Renewables Development Program, which includes an off-grid master plan for the electrification of islands on Lake Victoria and the creation of a pilot program for solar net metering.

China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have each listed a €500 million bond. The bond issuance of the Chinese company was made on the newly created Luxembourg Green Exchange, a platform exclusively dedicated to sustainable finance.

The Spanish power and gas provider has started construction on two 50 MW solar plants near Ciudad Real, in the southern region of Castile–La Mancha. The projects are part of the 250 MW pipeline it secured in the government’s renewable energy auction held in July.

The “Project Centurion” will allow the testing of ITM Power’s Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyser at Inovy’s Runcorn Site, where hydrogen is being produced as a co-product of the chlor-alkali process.

In the first eight months of 2018, newly installed PV capacity in Germany totaled almost 2 GW, and is already well above the previous year’s level. New residential and commercial PV systems, with a combined capacity of nearly 241 MW, have been reported to the Federal Network Agency. In October, solar incentives will drop by another 1%.