Renewable Energy

Ofgem passed its long-awaited, controversial plan for network charges last week, despite earlier warnings against the move. The UK electricity market regulator’s Targeted Charging Review has provoked a backlash in the renewables sector, as many believe that the plan will damage the economics of distributed energy resources and unsubsidized onshore wind and solar development.

The insolvent photovoltaic manufacturer is still talking to potential investment partners, but it claims that it could resume PV module production at its shuttered factory in the Dutch municipality of Zaanstad on short notice.

JinkoSolar has announced that it will supply 300 MW of its Tiger solar panels for what it describes as an ultra-high voltage demonstration plant in China’s Qinghai’s province. The project will be connected to an ultra-high voltage power line that State Grid Corp. of China is building to connect the far northwestern part of the country to the more heavily populated eastern provinces.

With Decree No. 345, the Cuban government aims to encourage consumers to install rooftop PV projects. The new rules will help to facilitate the sale of surplus power within the national electricity system, among other matters.

A recent study shows that PV costs have declined faster than any other energy technology over the past two decades. The researcher behind the study said this would not have been possible without the “butterfly effect,” which is based on the idea that a small change in one part of a complex system can have a large impact elsewhere. The researcher also attributed the the rapidly declining cost of PV to Chinese manufacturing and strong US investor support.

Baden-based utility Axpo is building a 2 MW facility at the Muttsee reservoir in the canton of Glarus, Switzerland. It expects the plant to maintain high levels of power generation, especially throughout the winter months.

The project is an extension of the Hélio Boulouparis 1 installation, which was commissioned in May 2017 with 11.2 MW of capacity.

Developers of huge solar parks on the island must deal with resistance from the government, other industrial players and the farming sector. Local agricultural producer Taisugar has downsized its plans to build solar plants across 1,000 hectares of land it owns, while semiconductor manufacturer TMSC has denied it is building a massive solar park in Pingtung county, as reported by the Taiwanese media.

Three energy associations, including Holland Solar, have asked the Dutch parliament to take action amid worsening grid connection problems for renewable energy projects in the Netherlands. According to the energy groups, around 700 MW of solar and wind projects allocated under the SDE+ incentive program could lose their payments if they miss connection deadlines.

A new process is described as a tool to assess the value of deferring, relocating or abandoning PV projects under development in uncertain market conditions. Researchers say the model may help investors reconsider projects which could be prematurely rejected based on traditional analytical approaches.