Solar Energy-Solar Mounting Systems

2014年11月23日星期日

Italian PV companies head to Morocco

A group of Italian companies has launched a €22 million investment project to develop solar power in Morocco.
The companies joined the Solar Breeder project at Photovoltaica, Morocco’s first international PV exhibition, which took place November 4 to 6 in Casablanca. Participating companies include Brandoni Solare, Friem, RSE, Moroni & Partners, Raptech, PV plant management firm Kenergia Sviluppo and its parent company Kenergia, which is developing and coordinating the Solar Breeder project in Morocco.
The Solar Breeder program is seen as an opportunity for small and midsized Italian PV companies to expand operations into a new and potentially promising renewable energy market. The program will cover the entire PV value chain.
Kenergia CEO Giovanni Simoni, on behalf of the group, and Ahmed Baroudi of Morocco’s energy investment company, Societè d'Investissement Energétique (SIE), signed the agreement in Casablanca.
The Solar Breeder project is also backed by local agencies such as the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) as well as the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Energy, Mining, Water and Environment.
As part of the program participating companies are to invest €22 million in renewable energy development in the country. The Solar Breeder project marks the first time that Italian PV companies join forces to work together in an effort to beat the international competition, according Simoni.
"The challenge we are facing is to deal with the new renewable markets with the Italian SMEs, and we can achieve it only with a common commitment and the support of local public and private institutions," Simoni said, adding that the agreement represented the starting point in a process of investments that will involve Italian companies, local banks, the S.I.E. and private investors.

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Australia: attempts to cut Renewable Energy Target hit another barrier

Australia: attempts to cut Renewable Energy Target hit another barrier

Since coming to power in September 2013 the Australian Federal Government, lead by Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been on the offensive against renewables. The Abbott government has advocated watering down the country’s RET, the mechanism by which large and small scale renewable projects are supported.

After seeing no chance of its legislation being passed through the Senate, after the Labor Opposition and key minor parties supported the RET, the Abbott government turned to Labor in an attempt to find a compromise on RET cuts and pass its legislation. It now appears the attempt at compromise has failed, presenting somewhat of a lifeline to the renewable sector.

The Guardian reports that the Labor environment spokesman, Mark Butler delivered a letter to the government’s Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane on Tuesday saying that his party would not accept the cuts to the RET as they were proposed. In the letter Butler wrote that Labor did not see, “any value in continuing discussions at this point in… time.”

The RET mandates 41,000 GWh of electricity be sourced from renewables by 2020. The government had proposed cutting this to 26,00 GWh. According to reporting from The Guardian, Labor was willing to negotiate a reduced figure in the mid to high 30,000 GWh, but this was rejected by the government.

The Guardian notes that the delivery of the letter by Labor is likely timed to embarrass the government ahead of the G20 meeting set to get underway in Brisbane later this week.

Australian Solar Council (ASC) lauds move

Australia’s peak solar body, the ASC congratulated the Labor opposition on the move saying that changes to the RET are now impossible. ASC’s John Grimes said that despite government comments that rooftop solar was safe in the negotiations with the opposition, that was far from the case.

“Tony Abbott will not be able to deliver the big win to the fossil fuel industry and big power companies that he dearly wanted,” said Grimes in a statement. "The Abbott Government remained intent on targeting rooftop solar in the Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES). The plan was to cap the SRES (leading to an annual boom and bust cycle), rapidly phase out the scheme, and lower the threshold from 100 kW to 10 kW, all of which would decimate the solar industry, and lock Australians into higher power bills.”

Lowering the SRES threshold from 100 kW to 10 kW would have particularly devastating to the commercial rooftop space.

The SRES is, in effect, a subsidy in support of rooftop solar arrays. It is worth around $750/kW (US$653). The average rooftop solar array in Australia is between 3.5kW and 4.5kW, meaning the average subsidy is around $3,000 (US$2,612).

While residential and commercial rooftop PV demand has remained strong since the election of the Abbott government, investment in utility scale solar has dropped away. While currently a number of projects are being built out, and some being supported on a regional level such as in the Australian Capital Territory, few new projects are being developed.

Australia’s Climate Council released a report this week in which is found investment in renewable energy, despite the strong rooftop PV segment, has dropped 70% this year compared with 2013 figures.

The Australian Solar Council has vowed to continue its, to date, highly effective campaign in support of the sector. The Save Solar campaign has targeted marginal electorates, in an attempt to spook government members and to demonstrate public support for solar and renewables.

“Today we announce our extraordinarily successful Save Solar campaign now turns into an election campaign,” said the ASC’s Grimes. “We will forge smart alliances and bring together disparate organizations under the Save Solar banner. Tony Abbott - it seems nothing will change your anti-solar crusade. Ultimately the community will decide.”

The latest IHS forecasts show that Australia is set to install 800 MW of solar in 2014, with that dropping to 700 MW in 2015.

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2014年11月11日星期二

BNEF: global solar to grow to close to 60 GW in 2015

While the global PV market remains a difficult beast to predict, with a wide array of public policy variables impacting on demand across a host of countries, BNEF expects annual installed capacity to increase by more than 20% in 2015. BNEF forecasts that by the end of 2014 an additional 48.4 GW of solar generating capacity will have been added to global grids.

The key drivers for global growth, on a national level, remains to be China and Japan with BNEF expecting 13 GW to 14 GW and 9 GW to 11 GW to installed respectively in 2014. China, in particular, is seeing an end-of-year boom with BNEF expecting a whopping 8 PW to 9 GW of PV to commissioned in China in Q4 2014 alone.

“There was a 6 GW quota given to what [the Chinese government] called ‘transmission grid connected projects,’ at the beginning of the year – and those were going ahead without any problem,” said BNEF’s head of solar analysis Chase. “The big question was all about the 8 GW quota for ‘distribution grid connected PV projects’ – and for those the economics didn’t really make sense until early September when the government changed the rules.”

BNEF’s Chase reports that many Chinese project developers were waiting for such a rule change and were ready to go with projects planned and designed.

“There were a large number of projects that were in project planning that were waiting for this [rule change to ‘distribution grid connected projects’] to happen. So I am pretty optimistic that something like 8 or 9 GW of projects can be commissioned in the Q4,” Chase told pv magazine. “It is quite a lot.”

BNEF analysis indicates that supplying these projects remains profitable for Chinese module producers.

“I think it is still marginally profitable for the low cost suppliers,” said Chase. “We are hearing prices in the low $0.60/W, which in big enough volumes is still worth doing.” Such prices work with volumes above 10 MW, according to BNEF analysis.

Elsewhere European markets remain slow, and BNEF is less bullish than some other analysts on the UK market in 2014. It expects between 2.5 GW and 2.8 GW to be installed in 2014. Chase reports that it is still uncertain as to whether the “Contracts for Difference” (CfD) scheme, which is replacing ROCs in May 2015, will deliver any significant volume to PV developers.

Looking towards emerging PV markets, Chile looks set to approach GW-market status in 2015. BNEF forecasts between 470 MW and 570 MW to go into Chile in 2014, growing to between 800 MW and 975 MW in 2015.

The Indian market too will grow, according to the BNEF forecasts. From 892 MW to 1.1 GW in 2014, the Indian market looks set to double in size in 2015 – to 2.6 GW to 3.2 GW. Power generation for onsite use, in India, is a particularly interesting emerging market in India, says Chase.

“Even though the typical grid price for electricity in India is not particularly high, a lot of companies have these ‘captive power plants’ for reliability and because in India some commercial enterprises subsidizes the residential sector,” said Chase. “And this provides an incentive for companies to sign PPA with a solar plant.”

Australia: attempts to cut Renewable Energy Target hit another barrier

Australia: attempts to cut Renewable Energy Target hit another barrier

The Guardian notes that the delivery of the letter by Labor is likely timed to embarrass the government ahead of the G20 meeting set to get underway in Brisbane later this week.

Australian Solar Council (ASC) lauds move

Lowering the SRES threshold from 100 kW to 10 kW would have particularly devastating to the commercial rooftop space.

The SRES is, in effect, a subsidy in support of rooftop solar arrays. It is worth around $750/kW (US$653). The average rooftopsolar array in Australia is between 3.5kW and 4.5kW, meaning the average subsidy is around $3,000 (US$2,612).

The latest IHS forecasts show that Australia is set to install 800 MW of solar in 2014, with that dropping to 700 MW in 2015.

Italian PV companies head to Morocco

A group of Italian companies has launched a €22 million investment project to develop solar power in Morocco.

The companies joined the Solar Breeder project at Photovoltaica, Morocco’s first international PV exhibition, which took place November 4 to 6 in Casablanca. Participating companies include Brandoni Solare, Friem, RSE, Moroni & Partners, Raptech, PVplant management firm Kenergia Sviluppo and its parent company Kenergia, which is developing and coordinating the Solar Breeder project in Morocco.

The Solar Breeder program is seen as an opportunity for small and midsized Italian PV companies to expand operations into a new and potentially promising renewable energy market. The program will cover the entire PV value chain.

Kenergia CEO Giovanni Simoni, on behalf of the group, and Ahmed Baroudi of Morocco’s energy investment company, Societè d'Investissement Energétique (SIE), signed the agreement in Casablanca.

The Solar Breeder project is also backed by local agencies such as the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) as well as the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Energy, Mining, Water and Environment.

As part of the program participating companies are to invest €22 million in renewable energy development in the country. The Solar Breeder project marks the first time that Italian PV companies join forces to work together in an effort to beat the international competition, according Simoni.

"The challenge we are facing is to deal with the new renewable markets with the Italian SMEs, and we can achieve it only with a common commitment and the support of local public and private institutions," Simoni said, adding that the agreement represented the starting point in a process of investments that will involve Italian companies, local banks, the S.I.E. and private investors.

Bangladesh installs 3 million residential solar systems

Bangladesh’s Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (Idcol) last week marked the installation of 3 million residential solarsystems in the country.

According to Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star, the 3 million systems installed under the Idcol program in off-grid areas have a combined capacity of 135 MW.

The newspaper reports that more than 15 million people are benefitting from the home PV systems.

The country has installed more than 3.1 million systems since May with support from the World Bank and other development agencies, according to the state-owned Idcol, which has set a target to finance six million residential solar systems by 2017 – a goal underscored by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina: "We've set a target to provide solar energy facility to three million more families over the next three years through Idcol," she said, quoted by Bangladeshi news agency UNB. Hasina described Idcol's residential solar program as one of the largest and fastest growing off-grid renewable energy programs in the world.

The Bangladeshi government is seeking to provide access to electricity to all of the country’s population by 2021. To do that, the government is looking to more than double electricity generation to 24 GW, 10% of which from renewables, according to UNB. As of August 2014, Bangladesh had an installed generation capacity of 10,618 MW, as per data from the Bangladesh Power Development Board.

Idcol has been financing residential solar systems since 2003 with the support of the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Other international agencies that have extended their support to the program include the Asian Development Bank, Germany’s KfW and GIZ, the Islamic Development Bank, the World Bank’s Global Partnership on Output Based Aid (GPOBA), U.S. organization USAID, the U.K.’s he Department for International Development (DFID) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA).

Idcol is currently installing more than 60,000 residential solar systems a month, The Daily Star reported, citing Idcol.

115 MW of utility-scale solar plants planned for western New South Wales

RenewEconomy can reveal that Neoen plans to install one 10 MW plant, one 15 MW plant and three 30 MW plants in and around the cities and towns of Dubbo, Narromine, Griffith, Parkes and Gilgandra.

According to Neoen Managing Director Franck Woitiez, the solar plants – the project is called the Dubbo Solar Hub – are attractive because they will be close to consumption centers, are in areas with good solar irradiance, and are unlikely to have any local opposition as the projects are ideally located and would benefit to the local community.

Woitiez says the planning approvals for the projects are well advanced, and connection studies are also on-going.

"We leveraged our experience from overseas and came to the conclusion that solar between 5 MW-30 MW is easy to develop, deploy, operate and integrate into the grid," he says.

"Being close to consumption also makes sense in a way that you don’t increase transmission costs and you minimise losses. This shall enhance those projects in the best economical way."

The Neoen solar plants would make solar the largest local source of generation in western New South Wales (NSW), which already has the some of the highest penetration rates of rooftop solar (Dubbo was once proclaimed the solar capital of Australia), and with the large-scale solar plants being built by First Solar at Nyngan (102 MW) and Broken Hill (53 MW).

On top of that, an alliance of western NSW councils has called for A$200 million of funding to build a range of small to medium-sized solar plants, that would include solar thermal as well as solar PV. In addition, Vast Solar has begun construction of a 6 MWth (1.1 MWe) concentrated solar thermal power station with three hours storage – the first stand alone plant of its type to be built in Australia- near Forbes, also in western NSW.

Woitiez says the western NSW solar projects are, however, dependent on the government committing to the current 41,000 GWh renewable energy target, as are its other renewable energy investments in Australia.

Neoen recently teamed with Megawatt Capital to buy the undeveloped 270 MW Hornsdale wind project in South Australia, and is believed to have tendered a 100 MW first stage into the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government's wind auction.

Neoen and Megawatt Capital are also looking to complete the purchase or more renewable energy projects from Investec, including two solar projects in Western Australia.

Neoen is also using Australia as a base for Asian investment, particularly for the Philippines, where there is a growing appetite for solar.

Neoen has also just landed a contract to build a 74 MW solar project in El Salvador for a price of US$102/MWh – and it believes that this price is something that is achievable in Australia, if the large-scale solar industry takes off and the cost of finance comes down.

However, he said it would require more appetite for solar from utilities in peaking periods – something that is already happening in the U.S. – and a willingness to keep a "decent" RET from the government. "That is the only way forward," he said.

Other international solar companies have made similar warnings. Recurrent Energy has already packed its bags, despite having a A$2 billion pipeline in Australia, First Solar has warned it will take its investments elsewhere, and others – including Australia’s Infigen Energy and Pacific Hydro – have said the same.

Woitiez said Neoen is committed to spending at least A$250 million in the next coming years in Australia, provided that the policy doesn’t create any sovereign risk threats.

Source: RenewEconomy. Reproduced with permission.
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