France hits 7.7GW solar deployment
France installed 484MW of solar PV projects in the first three quarters of this year, up from 465MW in the same period last year, according to provisional data from the Department of Data and Statistical Studies (SDES).
The installations commissioned since the beginning of the year are concentrated in the southern half of mainland France, mainly in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur and Occitanie regions.
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The country’s total deployment stood at 7.7GW as of 30 September. PV projects also saw a 7% increase in connection requests from Q2 to Q3 this year.
BayWa r.e. sells Northern Ireland’s largest solar farm to Greencoat Solar II LP
BayWa r.e. has sold its remaining portfolio of UK solar farms, totalling 75MW, to Greencoat Solar II LP, managed by Greencoat Capital.
The portfolio includes the 45MW Bann Road solar farm, the largest solar farm realised so far in Northern Ireland and on the island of Ireland. It has a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) in place with SSE Airtricity, Northern Ireland’s second largest energy utility. The portfolio also includes six solar farms spread across England and Wales totalling 30MW.
In all cases, BayWa r.e. will continue to provide ongoing expert operations and maintenance services to ensure maximum availability and yield optimisation of the plants.
“We are extremely pleased to see our well-established relationship with Greencoat continue with the sale of these solar farms,” said Matthias Taft, board member of BayWa AG. “We have established a highly desirable reputation for acquiring and developing some of the most successful renewable energy projects in Europe and through our operation and maintenance teams, ensuring they continue to operate at peak efficiency. This makes us attractive to developers looking to partner and investors looking to acquire.”
Tata Power Solar commission India’s first rooftop solar carport
Tata Power Solar has commissioned India’s first solar carport on a rooftop standing at 300kW capacity on the 70,000 sq metre Unity One mall in Rohini.
Tata Power Solar won the bid in the open tender process fielded by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for multi-level car parking. The project also benefits from net metering.
The company has already installed India’s first ground-mount solar carport of 2.67MW of grid-connected solar carports at Cochin International Airport in Kerala, which became the world’s first fully solar-powered airport in August 2015.
Ashish Khanna, ED and CEO, Tata Power Solar said: “We feel proud to be associated with yet another milestone solar project for India. It has been achieved by our excellent engineering skills and project management capabilities. After earning the distinction of executing world’s largest rooftop at a single location and India’s largest carport at Cochin, we feel proud to accomplish India’s first carport on a rooftop.”