Renewables

Global bids are invited to develop a cumulative 500 MW of energy storage system facilities on a “build-own-operate” basis anywhere in India. The proposed plants can be set up ranging in sizes from 100 MW to 500 MW, with the capacity to store at least six hours of electricity — for example, a 500 MW project with a minimum energy storage capacity of 3,000 MWh. Bidding closes on March 11.

The New South Wales Government is forging ahead with plans to bring 12 GW of renewable energy and 2 GW of storage online by 2030 with the formal declaration of Australia’s second coordinated renewable energy zone in as many months.

In the procurement exercise, the Italian authorities selected 49 solar projects with a capacity of less than 10 MW and 11 solar parks ranging in size from 13.2 MW to 92.4 MW. The lowest bid came in at €0.06263/kWh and was offered for a 5.9 MW solar project located in the province of Perugia, in the Italian central region of Umbria.

Elsewhere, several hydrogen projects were announced in Norway, Germany, India, China and the UK. Royal Dutch Shell started operations at the power-to-hydrogen electrolyzer in China and Germany’s Linde Engineering signed a contract for the construction a green hydrogen demonstration plant in Norway. Furthermore, Green Hydrogen Systems signed a supply agreement with Edinburgh-based Logan Energy to deliver electrolysis equipment for a project in England.

The incentive cut will apply only for the period from February 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022, and will reduce the tariffs paid by the GSE to PV system operators under the Conto Energia regime, depending on the zonal energy price, with the incentive reduction being proportional to the increase in energy prices.

Most of the deployed capacity comes from utility scale solar plants selected in the country’s tender scheme for renewables.

The deadline to submit bids is March 1 and the offered capacity is 1,107.7MW instead of the originally planned 617MW. The ceiling price has been set at €0.0557 per kWh.

Swedish scientists developed a three-step method that integrates techniques used for the automatic extraction of buildings along with their underlying roof faces, as well as the identification of utilizable rooftop areas for solar arrays. The novel methodology is claimed to avoid overestimating actual potential of buildings for PV deployment.

Bill Nussey describes in his new book a much larger role that he foresees for local solar and storage, and a correspondingly altered role for electric utilities.

Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto’s ambition to become one of the world’s largest lithium suppliers has taken a battering with the Serbian government pulling the plug on the company’s $3.3 billion ($US2.4 billion) Jadar lithium-borates project.