The battle between South Africa’s utility Eskom and renewable independent power producers (IPPs) continues with legal confirmation that IPPs can force Eskom’s hand to force it to sign the power purchase agreements (PPAs) under the government’s procurement programme.
Major PV inverter manufacturer SMA Solar Technology has claimed to have shipped over 1GW of inverters to India in 2016, holding a 26% market share, based on its figures that the market size in the country reached 3.9GW.
Plenty of naysayers have warned about unrealistic bidding and various delays damaging the Indian solar sector, but the head of ACME Solar, one of the largest developers India, approaching 1GW of installed capacity, has a very positive outlook on the industry's future. PV Tech caught up Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, the founder, chairman and managing director of ACME Group at the company offices in Gurgaon, New Delhi, to discuss delayed PPAs, transmission infrastructure, the approaching Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill and a unique point of view on India's Ultra Mega solar power parks.
Gigawatt Global, a multinational renewable energy company and partner of Obama’s Power Africa initiative, has broken ground on its 1GW solar programme with the 7.5MW solar project in Burundi.
In this week's Movers & Shakers segment, PV Tech focuses mainly on executive shifts in US solar companies involved in storage, trackers, residential loans and more. The African Development Bank is also revamping its management board, with a new head of Renewables.
Canada's SunCommon partners with Sustainable Energy Developments to provide residential, commercial and community solar in New York, Silicon Ranch closes a US$55 million equity fund, and new solar projects are completed in California and Arizona.
