Off-Grid

The World Bank Group today signed an agreement with the International Solar Alliance (ISA), which was formed at the COP21 Paris summit last year, and is comprised of 121 countries led by India, to partner on scaling up solar energy use globally, with the goal of mobilising US$1 trillion in investments by 2030.

The second Solar and Off-Grid Renewables West Africa event in Ghana in April heard mixed views on the progress of solar in the region. But with the first projects reaching completion and others moving forward, brighter times seem to be around the corner. Tom Kenning reports

German PV company IBC Solar has partnered with DHYBRID Power Systems to capitalise on their respective competencies in order to emerge as a market-leading provider of diesel-PV hybrid systems.

The Africa Energy Forum kicked-off with British MP Nick Hurd calling for off-grid solar to be “at the heart of Africa’s energy future”.

The US is leading the charge for solar in North America, but its next-door neighbours, Canada and Mexico, are also pressing ahead with plans to boost deployment. Danielle Ola reports on the policy developments expected to underpin the growth of solar in the two countries.

Renewables firm Juwi Australia and KPS, a subsidiary of Pacific Energy, are partnering on hybrid systems using solar, battery energy storage and diesel or gas generation for remote mines in Australia.

Brazilian public bank Banco do Nordeste (Northeast Bank) has created a credit line to allow companies to install solar Pv and other renewable sources of energy in the mini (75kW-5MW) and micro-generation (>100KW) segment.

The World Bank will finance various energy, water and infrastructure projects in northern Kenya under its US$1.1 billion North-eastern Kenya Development Initiative, according to reports.

Andy Colthorpe and Ben Willis profile some of the companies and technologies making waves in the fast-changing world of stationary energy storage, in a feature article which originally appeared in the seventh issue of PV Tech Power.

German storage manufacturer Tesvolt has been awarded a project to power water pumps in Rwanda with 2.68MWh of battery storage linked to a utility-scale solar system.