solar energy

The tendered project is expected to provide 500,000 people with access to energy, while more than doubling the country’s total installed power generation capacity. It includes a grid-connected 20 MW solar plant in Gardete and two 1 MW hybrid solar-diesel plants in Gabu and Canchungo that will also rely on some storage capacity.

A European research team working on the EU-funded EURAMET ENG55 “PhotoClass” project has taken a step toward standardizing the measurement of the relative temperature dependence of the short-circuit current in different PV devices, although it applied completely different approaches.

In the third in a series of interviews on renewable energy and geopolitics, Indra Overland — head of the Center for Energy Research (NUPI) and a research panel member for the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of the Energy Transition at IRENA — discusses how Saudi Arabia is dealing with the energy transition. He also outlines the challenges the Middle Eastern country will face in the coming decades, as it shifts to a less oil-dependent economy. Although the country recently set new solar and renewable energy targets, Overland believes that the geopolitical balance in the Middle East could shift to countries such as Iran in the coming decades, even if the Saudi commitment to renewable energy proves genuine.

The Dutch Institute for Sustainable Process Technology has launched the Gigawatt Elektrolysefabriek project, which aims to produce green hydrogen at the gigawatt scale from wind and solar parks in the Netherlands.

The Swiss Federal Office of Energy has announced that it will provide an additional CHF 30 million ($30.2 million) to reduce the waiting list for large-scale PV systems. According to local solar industry association Swissolar, however, the government must do more to reduce bureaucratic hurdles for solar energy development. The trade body also claims that the country has the potential to deploy 50 GW of PV capacity by 2050.

The first Solar Power Mexico exhibition was a success, despite being held just weeks after the Mexican government announced the cancellation of its fourth long-term energy auction for renewables, along with general policy-related uncertainty for clean energy.

The government of the West African country has given a temporary concession to PowerPro to develop the first phase of the project. The plant will be located in the Sikasso Region, in the southernmost part of Mali.

Through the procurement exercise, utility Uzbekenergo aims to deploy 100 MW of solar at an unspecified location in the Navoiy region in southwestern Uzbekistan.

U.K.-based Tribus and PS Renewables are seeking environmental approval to build the country’s largest PV facility across two sites in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The Sunnica Energy Farm will also include large-scale storage capacity at both facilities.

Phase IV of the huge solar park includes a 700 MW CSP plant and a 250 MW PV facility. Funds for the $4.2 billion project will be provided by banks from the United Arab Emirates and China, as well as other international lenders.