• August 31, 2022

The Egyptian government is said to be in talks with Chinese companies over plans to build an industrial park in the Arab country capable of producing 1 GW of solar modules. The report, citing four government sources, said the investment required for the project was estimated at $2.3 billion. The parties involved in the talks are discussing potential financing of the initiative through loans provided by Chinese banks and repaid by the Egyptian government over a period of time, one of the sources said. Reported plans for local production come amid growing fears about the fate of Egypt's solar projects amid a severe shortage of modules. The Solar Energy Development Association (SEDA), which supports the Egyptian solar market, recently warned that shortages of equipment such as solar cells, transformers, solar heaters and cables are putting project implementations across the country at risk.

• August 23, 2022

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is targeting 5 GW of electricity within this decade, according to an update released by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA). The latest project news released by DEWA confirms that the deadline for the fifth phase of the 900 MW, originally scheduled for completion in mid-2021, is next year. The 330 MW first project of the AED2.06 billion fifth phase is already operational and features double-sided solar panels mounted on single-axis trackers and fully automated robotic cleaning. DEWA said the second project in the fifth phase was 93.3% complete and the third project was 26.03% complete. The company will own 60 percent of the fifth phase, with Saudi state-owned developer ACWA Power and Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) holding 50 percent. GIC is equally owned by the governments of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The delayed construction of the 950 MW Phase 4 solar farm is 90% complete. This part of the entire project is being developed by DEWA and ACWA, with Beijing's state-owned China Silk Road Fund holding a 24% stake. The fourth phase of the park will feature a 600-megawatt parabolic basin and 100-megawatt concentrating solar towers, both of which were supposed to be completed last year. It will also include 250 MW of conventional photovoltaic capacity. DEWA said the site currently has 1,627 MW of generating capacity and an additional 1,233 MW is under development, meaning an additional 2,140 MW will be needed to reach the 2030 target of 5 GW.

• August 16, 2022

Last week, the U.S. passed the Reducing Inflation Act, which drew rapturous applause from the renewable energy industry. The bill — technically known as HR 5376 - Reducing Inflation Act of 2022 — is 730 pages of dense legalese. The document covers a wide range of topics, including healthcare, corporate tax, staffing of the IRS, and of course, energy-related legislation. investment tax credit The investment tax credit has been increased from 26% to 30% and can now be transferred or sold to other taxpayers. 30% applies to commercial and residential projects, including those installed in 2022, and will continue until the end of 2032. prevailing wages and apprenticeships For projects of 1MWac and above, we must pay attention to the labor requirements. By default, the tax credit is 6%. To be eligible for the additional 24%, workers and mechanics installing solar projects must receive prevailing wages and must be part of an electrical apprenticeship program. These tax credits will begin to apply to projects in 2023. Domestic ingredients – 10% tax credit adder Solar projects that qualify for the full 30% tax credit can increase their tax credit by another 10% to 40% by purchasing domestically produced hardware. According to the document, 100 percent of the steel must be made in the United States. For manufactured goods—such as solar panels, inverters, and electrical equipment—it must initially be 40 percent made in the U.S., although this percentage will increase in the future. Project Site Selection - 10% Tax Credit Adder Projects located in former "energy communities" can receive an additional 10% tax credit. Energy communities are defined first as brownfields and second as sites associated with previous generation fossil fuels. Clean Electricity Production Credit The wind industry has long received tax credits on a per-kWh basis. Before 2007, the solar industry was also eligible for this production credit. Production tax credits are now fully applicable to the solar industry. In this document, it is named "Clean Electricity Production Credit". 60% tax credit opportunity? There is also a 10% added value for solar projects that sell electricity to low-income individuals through community solar projects. If we add the 30% tax credit base, 10% domestic content, 10% located in former fossil fuel energy communities, and 10% of electricity sold to low-income households through community solar - the tax credit could reach 60% %. Additional items Additional tax credits for electric vehicles, electrical panels, heat pumps and many other items directly related to our industry

• August 11, 2022

The government of the Republic of Serbia in Bosnia and Herzegovina has adopted a net metering program to facilitate the deployment of 50,000 photovoltaic rooftop photovoltaic systems on residential and commercial buildings. The government of the Republic of Serbia, one of the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has revealed that it will support the installation of 50,000 solar rooftop photovoltaic systems on residential and commercial buildings with a total capacity of around 250 MW. The Rooftop PV rollout plan was proposed by the entity's Ministry of Energy and Mines and will be implemented by the state-owned power company Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske (ERS). All interested families and businesses in the Republic of Serbia are invited to a public conference call, details of which will be announced soon. ERS will operate the PV plant and provide initial financial resources for the project. Earlier this year, the power company said it expected about 50,000 prosumers to install PV systems under its new net metering plan, and now new details have emerged. According to ERS CEO Luka Petrovic, households and businesses selected to participate in the program will pay off their PV systems over the next 10 years. They will also be shielded from potential electricity price increases for the next 25 years.

• August 09, 2022

Spanish firefighters successfully put out a fire at the Ekian Solar Park renovation center in Arava, Spain, on August 1. The fire did not cause significant damage to the facility. The cause of the fire is not yet known and an investigation is ongoing. The 24 MW Ekian Solar Park, located in the Arasur Industrial Park, was inaugurated in January 2020 by local utility company Ente Vasco de la Energia (EVE). The factory is located in a 55-hectare industrial area called La Lágrima. Work on the facility began in April 2019 and took eight months to complete. As the largest Basque solar power plant, it has 67,000 355 W solar panels.

• August 01, 2022

According to the latest data released by the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA), China deployed around 30.88 GW of new PV systems in the first half of 2022. As of the end of June, the cumulative power generation has reached 340GW. CPIA predicts that China may deploy 85-100GW of new PV installations this year. The association also revealed that in the first half of this year, exports of wafers, cells and modules totaled $25.9 billion, and panel exports totaled 78.6GW. Meanwhile, polysilicon production was 365,000 metric tons (+54%) and wafer production reached 152.8 GW (+45.5%). Solar cell and module shipments were 135.5 GW (+46.6%) and 123.6 GW (+54.1%), respectively. Wintop is a professional manufacturer of solar mount components.

• July 26, 2022

Valardell, a 2.2 MW solar park in Llucmajor, Mallorca, Spain. Spain's Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenges (Miteco) has launched an auction for 140 MW of distributed solar power capacity. Shortlisted projects have an installed capacity of up to 5 MW and must secure at least three local partners, all within 60km of the project site. The auction will take place on October 25. The procurement campaign is part of a 520 MW tender that will be open for other renewable energy as well as thermal power projects. The energy tender is part of the Renewable Energy Economics Programme (REER) introduced in 2020 and is based on the allocation of a fixed price for the resulting energy through auctions.

• July 21, 2022

German football club Freiburg has announced that German systems integrator Badenova has completed the construction of a 2.4 MW rooftop solar array on the roof of its Europark stadium. The solar facility is the second largest photovoltaic system for football fields in the world, after the 2.5 MW rooftop array deployed at the "Mane Garrincha" National Stadium in Brasilia, Brazil. The rooftop photovoltaic system in Freiburg is expected to be connected to the grid in September, when the Fraunhofer ISE and the testing and certification body VDE will certify it.

• July 19, 2022

The controversial Oberon solar project is the third solar installation approved under the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Program. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has finalized the construction of the Oberon Solar Project on approximately 2,700 acres of land managed by BLM near the Desert Center in Riverside County, California. This solar project is the third to be approved for full construction under the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Program and is an example of how California's public lands can play an important role in meeting the Biden-Harris administration's goal of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035 . The Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Program (DRECP), an interagency planning effort covering 22.5 million acres in seven California counties, has two primary goals. First, provide a streamlined process for developing utility-scale renewable energy generation and transmission in the Southern California desert in accordance with federal and state renewable energy goals and policies. Second, the long-term protection and management of special species and desert vegetation communities and other physical, cultural, scenic and social resources within the DRECP program area through durable regulatory mechanisms. Both the BLM and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) have legal responsibility to protect wildlife under the Federal Endangered Species Act and the California Endangered Species Act. BLM must ensure that the needs of wildlife, fish and plants are taken into account when authorizing land use. CDFW requires project developers to avoid, minimize and/or compensate for impacts on fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats. Despite these safeguards, environmental groups have voiced their opposition to the Oberon solar project. Basin and Range Watch is one such group, with the following statement on its website: "Despite new mitigation measures negotiated by BLM between controversial environmental assessment and final decision under DRECP, project will kill large amounts of desert Ironwood trees—an endangered vegetation community in California.”