Using PV, wind and CSP, a ‘Supergrid’ interconnecting North Africa and Europe could take both regions close to 100% renewable energy by 2050, but would require political will and ambitious market design, an expert at Fraunhofer ISE has said.
Clean energy corridors of up to 2GW capacity are being planned for the West African region under plans put forward by the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE).
Midway across southern Ghana, near the historic port fishing town of Winneba, lies East and West Africa’s largest solar PV plant. Ghana suffers a severe energy deficit with only around 70% of the population having access to electricity, so it was welcome news that the project was connected to the grid at the end of last week. PV Tech visited the new project, built by China-based power firm BXC Ghana, just ahead of the Solar and Off-grid Renewables West Africa 2016 conference in Accra, Ghana.
The impact of distributed solar-plus-storage, including aggregated systems, will be included in an assessment of electricity storage’s participation in wholesale electricity markets by the US’ national regulator, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
GCL System Integration has bought a 51% stake in One Stop Warehouse, an Australian wholesale distributor of solar products, claiming it has been partly pushed by anti-dumping rules affecting its module supply business in Europe and the US.
OCI Solar Power and energy professionals group Buenavista Renewables (BVR) joined with the local Mexican government to commemorate what is claimed to be Mexico’s first private solar park.
The US Department of Energy SunShot Initiative has launched the Orange Button programme that will establish unified datasets in an effort to reduce financing costs.
Solar Impulse 2, the “zero fuel airplane” which began a round-the-world attempt last year, is set to resume flying from the Hawaii base where it has been grounded since last July.
