Asia & Oceania

India’s government has approved significant amendments to the nation’s power ‘Tariff Policy’, including increasing the Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) to 8% for solar energy by March 2022.

A “narrow focus” on the initial costs of energy storage is leading to misconceptions about the true value of the technology, a report has concluded.

Italy’s largest utility, Enel S.p.A., has signed off on a non-binding framework agreement with Bank of China and the China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (SINOSURE) to promote the development by Enel’s companies — especially Enel Green Power — of projects across the world, with the added help of Chinese EPC contractors and/or suppliers.

Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), an Indian state-owned mining and power company, is tendering for 260MW of grid-connected solar PV capacity in two Indian states.

India’s fifth largest private sector bank YES Bank plans to list a Green Bond of up to US$500 million on The London Stock Exchange by December this year.

Solar developers AGL Energy and First Solar have completed Australia’s two largest solar PV plants at Nyngan (102MW) and Broken Hill (53MW), which included AU$166.7 million support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

New South Wales was the only Australian state to experience a significant increase in volumes of sub-100kW PV systems in 2015, with most other states contracting, according to the latest figures from Australia-based solar consultancy SunWiz.

China-based PV manufacturer and PV project developer Hareon Solar Technology is raising around US$300 million in a private placement of new shares to expand PV manufacturing capacity and enter the LED market through an acquisition.

India’s fiercely competitive solar auctions have driven bids down to another surprise low with Finland-based developer Fortum Finnsurya Energy winning 70MW capacity in Rajasthan at a price of INR4.34/kWh (US$0.064), which is a drop of more than a 6% from the previous Indian record of INR4.63/kWh.

SMA is aiming to tackle the market for retrofitting energy storage systems in to existing home PV installations, with a new AC-coupled version of its Sunny Boy inverter suitable for high voltage batteries.