Residential Solar

The cataclysmic bushfire season ravaging the nation is a reminder of the risk climate change poses to Australia’s economic and social prosperity. An international roadmap to freedom from fossil fuels by 2050 produced by the U.S.’ Stanford University says Australia needs another 280 GW of solar and tens of billions of dollars of investment to turn down the heat.

The analyst expects the final figure for new PV generation capacity in 2019 to top out at 20-24 GW thanks to the delayed introduction of a new solar policy, land scarcity, financing problems and grid connection issues. There are clouds on the horizon too, with China set to remain wedded to coal for the foreseeable future.

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.

That record figure of utility scale PV was under contract at the end of June with 8.7 GWdc under construction. However, installation levels fell slightly, year-over-year.

EuPD Research has calculated what needs to be done to replace the nuclear and coal generation to be phased out in Germany. Accelerated expansion of PV appears the best short-term option. However, storage capacity will need to increase 30-fold by 2040 so solar can become the main pillar of the country’s energy system.

Eastern Europe’s largest utility has decided to acquire a minority stake in Zolar – a German provider of digital solutions for rooftop PV – alongside BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures.

The nation’s thriving distributed generation market is flying, as was evident at last week’s Intersolar South America trade show. The sector seems unconcerned by mooted changes to net metering incentives in the new year and when even an environmental non-believer like President Bolsonaro is on side, it is difficult to be pessimistic.

The London-based developer revealed blockbusting annual figures which show it is debt free, has almost £20 million in the bank, raked in more than half that figure in net profits in 2018-19 and expects twice as much in a year’s time.

The energy transition is accelerating, Ernst & Young global energy leader Benoit Laclau has warned grid operators, thanks to the confluence of digitization, decentralization and decarbonization. Traditional utilities must get with the program or be swept aside.

With a new decree, the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has enabled the owners of residential, commercial and industrial rooftop PV systems to sell excess power to the grid. The government hopes the new provisions will result in around 1 GW of deployed PV capacity over the next three years. Doubts, however, have been raised about the attractiveness of the scheme.