Babatunde Fashola, Nigeria’s Minister of Power Works and Housing, has signed off on two put/call option agreements (PCOA) with solar developers Afrinegia Nigeria Limited and CT Cosmos Nigeria Limited.
Power purchase agreements (PPAs) have been signed for the pioneering Rewa solar park projects, which briefly had the lowest solar tariffs ever in India.
Enel Green Power has signed a 25-year PPA with Zambia’s state-owned utility ZESCO for a 34MW PV project in the Lusaka South Multi-Facility Economic Zone in southern Zambia.
Oriental Renewable Solutions, a subsidiary of the Oriental Group has formed a 50:50 equity partnership with GreenWish Partners to co-develop a 50MW solar PV project in Jigawa State, Nigeria.
Major power firm EnergyAustralia has signed a 13-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to take 80% of the energy produced by a 142MW solar PV plant near Townsville in Queensland, Australia.
Doubt has been cast on the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) ‘Scaling Solar’ programme after a panel of investors revealed it could be fostering a race to the bottom for unrealistic tariffs, diverting focus from essential bankability.
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.
