• March 21, 2022

The U.S. Department of Energy has released an action plan for the safe and responsible disposal of solar photovoltaic end-of-life (EOL) materials. Activities outlined in the plan will reduce the environmental impact of solar energy. Although 95% of PV modules are recyclable, the current economics of EOL processing are not conducive to recycling. The cost of recycling PV modules is significantly higher than landfill fees. Establishing safe, responsible and economical EOL practices will support greater deployment of solar energy. According to a recent U.S. Department of Energy assessment of the solar PV supply chain, recycling should become standard practice to facilitate domestic material supply. Actions taken now will improve the possibility of developing enabling technologies to handle PV EOL volumes safely, responsibly and economically, leading to greater deployment and safe and socially responsible supply chains. Under the strategy developed today, the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technology Office (SETO) plans to address PV EOL through stakeholder outreach, data collection, research, and analysis. SETO aims to better understand the status of EOL by developing a database that tracks the material, quantity, age, location, cause of EOL and EOL treatment of modules. This is determined through a five-year plan. In addition, SETO will support hardware research to reduce the environmental impact of EOL and more than halve module recycling costs by 2030.

• March 16, 2022

The Italian government has announced a new package of measures, the DL Energia decree, to reduce the energy bills of Italian households and businesses. The new regulations include simplifying the installation approval process for commercial rooftop solar PV systems with an installed capacity between 50kW and 200kW as much as possible. In Italy, these systems can be applied to the national net metering scheme called "Scambio sul posto". From May, businesses will be allowed to start deploying rooftop solar arrays using only one application form. This so-called "Modello Unico Semplificato" form is often used for common building maintenance projects. Previously this process was only available to owners of PV systems with an installed capacity of up to 50kW. The Italian government has also decided to allocate 267 million euros ($294 million) to help small and medium-sized enterprises deploy photovoltaic systems for their own use. The funds will be used in tax rebates to help businesses pay for part of the cost of buying and installing solar arrays. Businesses operating in southern Italy's regions of Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Apulia, Sardinia and Sicily will also enjoy financial incentives. These incentives will be offered to companies that decide to reduce their energy bills by investing in solar energy or energy efficiency.

• March 01, 2022

The Derry, New Hampshire City Council has finalized the contract for a new 2.2-megawatt solar array developed by Encore Renewable Energy that will be one of the largest in the state. Encore will finance, design, build, install, operate and maintain a 2.2 MW ground-mounted solar project called Derry Solar LLC, located in a closed and enclosed municipal solid waste landfill owned by the town of Derry. Once completed, the solar project will help the town achieve approximately $3.5 million in energy savings over the project's 25-year contract and help meet the city council's goal of achieving 100 percent renewable energy in the town of Derry, two years ahead of its original goal. Year to achieve 2025. “This project is the culmination of six years of planning and engineering work by Net Zero Task Force volunteers,” said chair Jeff Moulton. “Prior to this project, the task force benchmarked energy use in all 40 towns and school buildings, implemented multiple energy initiatives that currently save the town over $900,000 annually, and installed an 86-kilowatt kWh in 2018. The town’s transit station for solar projects is currently performing better than expected.” A working group of professional engineers, business people, energy experts and representatives from key town groups including schools, public works, planning boards, code enforcement, conservation boards, economic development and the public and the public began work on the project more than two years ago . The group has collaborated in communicating information and advocacy to the community and supporting required state legislative action and with the support of Governor Chris Sununu. Encore Renewable Energy was selected from seven companies through a competitive tender process called for by the Town of Derry in September 2021. In addition to saving energy for the town, the solar project will be constructed with no upfront cost to the community. The site also offers potential opportunities to expand the project in the future. "The opportunity to develop sustainable energy from undervalued assets such as landfills is part of our company DNA," said Chad Farrell, CEO and founder of Encore Renewable Energy. Leveraging deep expertise in bringing to Delhi as a hosting location for community-scale solar panels to help support the community’s transition to a clean energy economy.”

• February 16, 2022

Swiss renewable energy producer Alpiq has announced that it will build an 18MW vertical bifacial solar power plant at an altitude of 2,000 to 2,200 meters in Gondo-Zwischbergen in the Swiss canton of Valais. The Gondosolar PV project will have 4,500 bifacial modules on 10 hectares of land and will generate approximately 23.3 million kWh of electricity per year. The project is expected to require an investment of 42 million Swiss francs ($45.5 million) and, due to the project's design, will generate about twice as much power per square metre as comparable facilities on the Swiss plateau, the company said. The company further explained, “Furthermore, 55% of the electricity generated by the Gondosolar project will be produced in winter, and the winter power generation per square meter will be four times that of lowland PV installations.” Alpiq also revealed that the company is going through the trial process and financing for the project, with construction expected to be completed within three years after construction begins. Project sponsor Renato Jordan owns a piece of land in Alpjerung, where the power station is located. Alpiq said, “We conducted a comprehensive feasibility study and finally concluded that the project is not only environmentally and technically feasible, but also economically feasible, as long as the subsidy model enacted by the Federal Parliament allows Gondosolar to perform at its highest level. Get a 60% subsidy." The power station will be owned and operated by local utility company Electrique du Simplon (EES), of which Alpiq itself is the largest shareholder.

• February 09, 2022

Independent power producer (IPP) Sonnedix Power Holdings Ltd said today that its 26.5 MW Sonnedix Tanabu solar farm in Japan entered commercial operation on January 31, 2022. Sonnedix Tanabu is located in Yamada City, Iwate Prefecture. It is equipped with 400-Wp JA Solar Technology (SHE:002459) monocrystalline modules and a 3.2-MW TMEIC inverter, Sonnedix said. Juwi Shizen Energy Operations will provide operations and maintenance (O&M) services at the plant. The output of the solar farm will be sold under an 18-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with an undisclosed party. Its full-year production capacity in its first year of operation is estimated at 33,000 MWh, enough to meet the electricity needs of more than 7,500 households. With the new plant coming online, the Sonnedix Group has an operational capacity of 360 MWp in Japan. The group said it expects another 55 megawatts of power to come into commercial operation in the first half of 2022.

• January 19, 2022

State-owned power generation company China Huadian Group has begun construction of a 3.3GW solar power plant in Sichuan province. The project is one of nine renewable energy power plants listed in China's latest national five-year plan. Headquarters of China Huadian Group State-owned power generation company China Huadian Group has begun construction of a 3.3GW solar power plant in Chamdo, southwest China's Sichuan province. The 16 billion yuan ($2.51 billion) project includes the Mangkang Angdo and Gongju Lator solar power plants. The power company said the plot would be combined with farming and animal husbandry. The project is one of nine clean energy projects in China's 14th Five-Year Plan. According to the National Energy Administration, the total generating capacity of these renewable energy projects will reach 300GW and cost about 300 billion yuan ($47 billion). Solar module maker LONGi and energy company Sinopec have announced plans to deploy photovoltaics at 147 of the latter's gas stations. The arrays will feature Longi Roof, a new building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) panel that replaces traditional building pitched roofs. The projects will be installed in Shaanxi, Hubei, Anhui and Guangdong provinces. China's largest energy company, State Power Investment Corporation, has launched a bidding process for 5.5GW of inverters, 4.5GW of solar modules and 1.8GW of engineering, procurement and construction services.

• January 10, 2022

The deployment of distributed PV (under 5 MWp) in Brazil has surged from a total capacity of 500 MW in 2018 to 7 GW in September this year. In addition to soaring electricity prices, the trigger for the increase was Proposition 5829 in 2019, wrote IHS Markit analyst Angel Antonio Cancino. The proposal is expected to pass into law by the end of this year and will gradually introduce grid access charges to residential and commercial system owners. On August 18, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved a revised version of Law 5829. The new version of the proposed law is the result of a lengthy negotiation process. It aims to remove some of the grid access that Brazil's distributed generation (DG) projects have. Currently, DG systems are exempt from grid charges when they benefit from Brazil's current net billing scheme. The program allows DG system owners to offset their energy bills by generating electricity from their rooftops and feeding it into the grid. Law 5829 is currently awaiting Senate approval and will be published by the end of the year. While it was originally planned to limit the DG section, the revised version of the law is expected to drive an installation boom past the deadline by which fees will be charged. This is similar to other markets where there are grace periods or specific connection periods when such laws are introduced. From January 2021 to September 2021, 2.2 GW of DG systems were connected, a significant increase from the 5 GW that was operating at the beginning of the year. Brazil's worst drought in nearly a century has exacerbated high electricity prices, low interest rates due to the Covid-19 crisis and economic entities that offer 5 to 10-year loans to finance solar projects make solar PV an attractive investment option. The opportunity to avoid paying grid bills makes near-term installations more attractive. As most developers and end-users will scramble to apply to build distributed generation systems before the grace period ends, we expect annual installations of distributed generation projects to peak in 2022 and 2023, with nearly 30 percent of new distributed generation added each year. 6 GW. Due to the boom in project installations, we forecast strong installation activity in the PV industry, which could lead to as much as 37 GW of new additions over the 2021-2025 period. This is expected to be split between 22 GW from distributed generation projects and 15 GW from the utility-scale market.

• December 30, 2021

German startup Solarbakery developed this 52 kW containerized solution. The production process of the bakery has been adjusted. Most of the electricity consumption occurs during the day, and only a brief baking is carried out before dawn. A new artisanal bakery is expected to open in Senegal as early as the end of March, serving fresh and delicious bread-and using solar energy to achieve a carbon dioxide-neutral production process. The special feature of this bakery is that it is completely arranged in a container and will be shipped from Munich to Senegal by the German startup Solarbakery. The solar cell modules and installation system will then be unpacked and installed on site. The equipment of the bakery and a well-divided insulated and air-conditioned room will be located in a container on the ship. The container is almost 14 meters long and 2.45 meters wide. There is also a battery energy storage system embedded in the container, designed to provide enough power for early shifts. The idea for Solarbakery came from Simon Zimmermann. He and a partner have deployed several container bakeries in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Through this business, the company achieved sales of $128,000 in the first fiscal year, but the electricity supply for the bakery is still guaranteed by polluting and expensive diesel generators. As the co-founder of Solarbakery, Zimmermann won the support of Torsten Schreiber. Torsten has been cooperating with Africa Greentec company, committed to the solar electrification of African villages, and is now responsible for converting the containers in the bakery to rely on photovoltaics. To this end, a solar roof installation was added to the bakery with 144 modules and a total power of 52 kW. The third founder of the company, Daniel Petruccelli, is a baker. He changed the production process so that most of the power consumption occurs during the day, and the finished bread only needs to be heated for a short time before dawn. He also trains employees and devotes himself to developing new recipes.

• December 22, 2021

The fourth round of contract for difference (CfD) plan is expected to allocate 12 GW of renewable energy capacity. The British government believes that mature solar and onshore wind energy technologies are entitled to up to 5 GW of capacity, but the limited budget of these two technologies may not be enough to reach this level. The British Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) today launched the fourth round of contract for difference (CFD) plans to help deploy utility-scale renewable energy projects. The British government has allocated 285 million pounds for a new round of auctions, and for the first time since 2015, solar energy and onshore wind energy have been included in competing energy sources. However, only 10 million pounds of it are dedicated to solar energy and land-based wind energy, both of which are defined as mature technologies by the government. Most of the funds will be earmarked for offshore wind power, tidal power and floating offshore wind power projects. BEIS hopes to sign a renewable energy capacity of about 12 GW through this round of auctions, which is more than the total capacity of the previous three rounds of auctions. BEIS said: “Since 2015, onshore wind and solar energy have participated in competitive distribution for the first time. The government hopes that these two technologies will make a huge contribution to production capacity and help us achieve the level of deployment needed to achieve climate change goals.” The ministry also added It is pointed out that the total capacity of solar and wind energy in this auction may not exceed 5 GW, and the purchase capacity limit of 3.5 GW has been set for these two technologies.