utility-scale solar

The strength of applications for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s ultra-low-cost solar research funding round was so strong that the agency had to add AUD 1.5 million ($1.03 million) to its original allocation. The strength of competition pushed the process into 2023, but the 13 research projects aiming to achieve ultra-low-cost solar have now been awarded.

Israel’s scarce land resources and lack of interconnections to neighboring countries have driven the rise of rooftop solar. Now a number of recent policy changes, mainly due to electricity reforms, are set to reinforce the decentralization trend, reports Ilias Tsagas.

Following a disappointing COP27 climate change summit in November, solar industry veteran Philip Wolfe reviews the contribution utility-scale PV is starting to make to emissions reduction.

Australian independent power producer ReNu Energy has signed a deal with the developers of a proposed 3.5 GW solar-plus-storage facility in Indonesia to explore the potential large-scale production of green hydrogen for supply into Southeast Asia and beyond.

Utility-scale solar is stirring in the region, with support from development banks. Following a series of competitive auctions, PV projects have been commissioned and are under development in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In the latter nation, corporate interest in distributed, small-scale renewables is growing but for further market uptake, additional incentives should be introduced, practitioners say.

Poland was the EU’s biggest solar jobs market last year, thanks to a national rooftop incentive program, but Germany’s push to repatriate solar manufacturing will help the bloc’s PV powerhouse back to the number one slot in three years’ time, according to SolarPower Europe.

The average global price of solar kilowatt-hours fell 13% on 2020’s prices, as around two-thirds of the renewables capacity installed last year was cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel alternative.

An initial 30 MW slice of generation capacity, to include agrivoltaics and aquavoltaics, is set to be generating by 2024 according to the Hong Kong-Bangladeshi JV which plans to develop the site.

Climate change ambitions announced by the governments of Egypt and Morocco are symptomatic of a desire for clean power sites with regional policymakers leaning towards auction-set payments for clean power, according to a recent webinar.

Spanish engineering company Sener has developed a software that analyzes different combinations of panels, trackers or tables, inverters and storage systems, as well as construction costs, depending on the market situation at any given time and the client’s preferences.