Project developers have signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Malawian national utility Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Limited (ESCOM) for a 60MW(AC) solar plant.
Norwegian state-owned electricity company Statkraft plans to reach 2GW of solar by 2025, as part of a NOK1 billion (US$1.2 billion) investment in renewable energy.
India-based module manfacturer Vikram Solar has shipped 52.6MW of solar modules to South Carolina-based developer Southern Current for a ground-mount project in the US.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has signed an agreement with the government of Afghanistan to design and tender a 40MW solar plant that will set a new model for subsequent projects and support the country’s 2GW of PV goal.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$40 million loan to support a 41MW hybrid distributed renewable energy system combining wind, solar, battery storage and a thermal heat pump in Mongolia.
Acme commissions 200MW in Rajasthan, BlueWave Solar sells 24MW community solar portfolio to Goldman Sachs, TIU Canada starts building 13.5MW solar project in Ukraine using LONGi modules.
At Solar Power International 2018 in Anaheim, numerous PV module manufacturers are continuing to roll-out a wider range of panels that embrace new technologies such as bifacial and half-cut cells as well as increased performance from existing product offerings that include both monocrystalline and multicrystalline.
With the multi to mono transition largely a fait accompli in the PV industry, the buzzword for 2019 will certainly be on bifaciality. This has been brewing for some years, but the sheer weight of capacity and production will finally impact on large-scale utility solar in ways most appear to be grossly unprepared for.
