Renewables

The U.S. residential solar market – and 15 states – are at record highs according to analyst WoodMac’s ‘don’t call it a comeback’ Q3 report, driven by new market forces. The research firm held its 2019 U.S. solar forecast at 13 GW.

Dutch transmission system operator Enexis, gas provider Gasunie and oil company NAM are considering diverting excess solar capacity in Drenthe province into hydrogen production. The companies are assessing which wind and solar projects may have been excluded from the grid.

Spanish energy company Endesa is planning to build a 1,725 MW renewable energy complex in the Spanish town of Andorra, in the province of Teruel. The €1.48 billion project is set to comprise 1,585 MW of solar generation capacity, 139 MW of wind turbines and a large scale storage system, and will replace coal power plants Endesa wants to close in Andorra (Teruel) and Compostilla (León).

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.

Scientists have developed a new mathematical model which indicates floating solar on fish farms could be a lucrative option in land-scarce Taiwan. Although floating arrays could hinder fish production, the losses would be largely compensated by electricity-related income.

At the ongoing COP25 summit in Madrid, the French energy group announced the closure of nearly 1 GW of coal assets in Chile and Peru between 2019 and 2024. It also secured a PPA for an 18 MW solar park that will come online in southern France in June 2021.

The PV project, which was tendered by Jordanian utility NEPCO in 2017, will sell power at $0.059/kWh. The plant is located in Jordan’s Risha region, which is roughly 300 km northeast of Amman.

The 8.5 kW pilot project, which was launched in February 2018, will soon be expanded to 50 kW. The Dutch consortium behind the installation eventually plans to expand it to 1 MW and then up to 100 MW at a later stage. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) provided financial backing for the project.

The European Commission has approved state aid for the so-called European Battery Alliance to promote the development of a lithium-ion battery supply chain in the European Union.

Italian gas and oil producer Eni has followed the recent commissioning of a 10 MW solar+storage project in Pakistan with the completion of a similar off-grid installation at an oil field in Tunisia. The power plant was built in partnership with Tunisian state-owned oil company Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activités Pétrolières