The European Union will provide €578 million to build a major power link running through the Bay of Biscay to export Spain’s excess renewable energy to France, in a move that has been welcomed by France, Spain and Portugal.
The start of construction on India’s largest energy storage project is not only of strategic importance to regulators, but could also drive another wave of utility-scale projects in India, the chief of the country’s storage alliance has said.
Filipino energy secretary Alfonso Cusi has euphemistically admitted that the suspension of four commissioners of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) may cause delays in power projects, while the already inert solar industry has seen conditions go from bad to worse.
The World Bank plans to make energy storage an integral part of its ‘Scaling Solar’ program, that until now has been focused purely on facilitating large-scale solar tendering, predominantly in Africa.
The US’ two leading states in solar and energy storage, New York and California, have taken steps towards valuing the locational and time-of-use value of distributed energy resources and other states should follow, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has said.
Shell Energy Europe has signed an initial five year power purchase agreement (PPA) with British Solar Renewables (BSR) to take power generated at England’s largest solar farm at RAF Lyneham.
Several provincial authorities in Vietnam are developing guidelines for renewables that should improve the country’s solar market, but stubbornness from the monopoly utility EVN means that the largest-scale projects remain the preserve of big risk-takers, according to a representative of international law firm Baker McKenzie.
The first ‘smart neighbourhood’ in the US state of Georgia is being created by utility Georgia Power and homebuilder PulteGroup, with each home equipped with solar PV, battery energy storage and other smart, clean and distributed energy resources.
Legislation proposed in Florida could see solar and energy storage become part of the go-to solution for providing energy resiliency against natural disasters and helping restore power in their aftermath.
