PV deployment is gathering pace in the EU member state but grid capacity shortfalls and unpredictable shifts in government policy need to be addressed if the nation is to harness its full solar – and European energy security – potential.
The 2.7 million people employed in solar in China last year dwarfed the 250,000 working in the US solar industry, according to a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency.
The national goals set by European countries two years ago already look hopelessly out of date thanks to the global PV boom. The Euro trade association for the industry has called for ambitions to be radically scaled up in 2023 if the world is to have any chance of capping temperature rises at 1.5C.
The International Energy Agency has acknowledged dramatic falls in energy investment caused by the Covid-19 crisis but said renewables, including PV, offered an attractive proposition to investors as the dust settled, given their enticing economics and short turnaround times.
The world’s solar superpower saw the amount of new capacity added in the first three months of the year fall 24% from the same period of 2019 as 1.75 TWh of solar electricity was curtailed, but the National Energy Administration expects both statistics to improve as China exits the public health crisis.
Energy Efficiency Services Limited, which has already bagged orders for 800 MW of distributed solar installations in the state of Maharashtra and 113 MW in Rajasthan, says it will roll out the generation facilities by the end of the next fiscal year.
The approach combines virtual impedance and a modified pulse-width modulation strategy to suppress fault currents in grid-connected PV systems.
The government is being helped by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as it designs a new net metering system. The country already supports large scale PV plants and small solar parks.
A Department of Energy agency expects 17.4 GW (DC) of utility scale solar power generation capacity plus 6.6 GW of small scale PV will be installed in 2020. That volume would be 60% higher than the record, set in 2016.
Having envisioned an 18-month transition to grid parity solar in the world’s biggest PV marketplace, developers of large scale projects are now reportedly being told the subsidy taps will be switched off at the end of December.
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