PowerGen has installed a new mini-grid in Nigeria and has signed a contract to develop nine more similar installations. Its investments in the country’s booming off-grid market are backed by the World Bank. On Dec. 7, the Kenya-headquartered off-grid systems developer connected a mini-grid system in the community of Rokota, Niger State. The project serves about 3,000 people with reliable clean energy, it said. PowerGen also recently signed an agreement to develop nine more mini-grids throughout the state, which is Nigeria’s largest. REA Nigeria said the projects are all supported by the World Bank’s $550 million program for off-grid energy development in Nigeria, which they jointly operate. pv magazine first reported about the program in October. Mini-Grid Acceleration Scheme The World Bank’s Performance-based Grant Scheme is not the only initiative aimed at ramping up Nigeria’s mini-grid sector, as REA Nigeria recently ran a tender based on its so-called Mini-Grid Acceleration Scheme (MAS). The four developers that won the MAS tender will deploy their mini-grid projects with an “in-kind partial capital grant” in the form of procured distribution and metering equipment, as well as technical assistance.” A spokesperson for REA Nigeria said that the four winners will “build a total of 24 mini-grids to meet up with the required minimum connections of 3,500 [per lot] with each mini-grid not exceeding 1 MW.” They will build the PV-powered mini-grids in the states of Niger, Oyo, Anambra, Delta and Edo. The installations are expected to be operational by the end of July 2020. The association emphasized the importance of the public-private partnership approach used in the MAS tender. However, private developers will own all of the projects, similar to the World Bank’s scheme. The developers and the communities will negotiate the tariffs at which the electricity will be sold, in line with Nigeria’s Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO). The MYTO is a tariff model established by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) “that seeks to reward performance above certain benchmarks, reduce technical and non-technical commercial losses, and lead to cost recovery and improved performance standards from all industry operators in the Nigerian electricity supply industry,” said REA Nigeria. Specifically, MYTO “is used to set wholesale and retail prices for electricity in the industry by employing a unified way to determine total industry revenue requirement that is tied to measurable performance improvements and standards,” the REA Nigeria spokesperson added. The MAS is supported by the European Union and the German government in cooperation with the Nigerian Energy Support Program (NESP) and Germany’ GIZ development agency. The Interconnected Mini-Grid Acceleration Scheme REA Nigeria said that the MAS should not be confused with the Interconnected Mini-Grid Acceleration Scheme (IMAS). Both programs are funded by the same stakeholders via the Nigerian Ene...

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From pv magazine USA. The U.S. residential solar market hit record highs in the third quarter with 712 MW of PV rooftop capacity installed, according to the U.S. Solar Market Insight report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and U.S.-owned analyst WoodMac Power & Renewables. Key takeaways from the report include: The U.S. installed 2.6 GWdc of solar in the third quarter, a 45% increase year-over-year; The U.S. added a record 712 MW of residential solar capacity in the last quarter; California added almost 300 MW of residential PV; The contracted utility PV pipeline hit a record high of 45.5 GWdc; and Total installed U.S. solar capacity will more than double over the next five years. New growth drivers in California Perennial solar leader California installed a record 300 MW of residential solar in the last quarter, although the “growth drivers have shifted”, according to Austin Perea, senior solar analyst for Wood Mackenzie. Perea suggested it is “new-build solar demand” and “consumer interest in solar-plus-storage solutions, as a result of public safety power shut-offs” which are driving the record growth. According to WoodMac, policy reforms continued to hobble development in the key non-residential markets of California, Massachusetts and Minnesota. Positive policy developments in New York, Maryland, Maine and New Jersey, according to the report, could boost the non-residential space in the next few years. The U.S. solar market added 2.6 GW of solar in the third quarter, raising national solar capacity to 71.3 GW. The increase in residential installations helped the U.S. market expand 45% year-over-year and contributed to 15 states having their best ever residential PV quarter. Wood Mackenzie is sticking with its full-year U.S. solar forecast of 13 GW – for a 23% annual growth rate – even though the company has typically tended towards conservative estimates.

German solar project developer Solar-Konzept is planning several unsubsidized solar parks with a total generation capacity of 800 MW across the southern Italian regions of Apulia and Basilicata. Managing director Nikolaus von Einem told pv magazine land and grid connection approvals were already secured for all the projects. Solar-Konzept Italia was only founded in May and swiftly applied to the municipal authority of Brindisi, in southern Apulia, for six solar projects with capacities of 16-98 MW and a total output of 300 MW. “All of these projects are currently being reviewed for environmental impact assessment and a final decision should be taken in early 2020,” said Von Einem. “We hope to obtain final authorizations by the end of 2020 and build the power plants between 2021 and 2022.” Total investment for the facilities is estimated at around €180 million. Seeking power deals Solar-Konzept has applied for environmental impact assessments related to three 20 MW solar parks near Melfi, in neighboring Basilicata, and a 20 MW facility near Taranto in Apulia plus, by Christmas, “another 140 MW, set to be located between the Apulian provinces of Foggia, Bari and Taranto” added the developer’s MD. On top of that, the company is planning further projects to take its projected pipeline to 800 MW. “All our projects are built without subsidies and we will have to look for a PPA [power purchase agreement],” said Von Einem. “The first indicative talks are under way but the project phase does not allow for more serious talks at the moment.” Divisive The executive admitted there is extensive opposition to new solar capacity in Apulia, and particularly in Brindisi. Von Einem said farmers were dealing with the xylella fastidiosa bacterium which has killed more than a million trees in the region but that the regional government also plans to close Apulia’s only coal plant, the 2,640 MW Federico II facility near Brindisi, by 2025. “Apulia actually needs new power generation units,” said Von Einem, adding all of Solar-Konzept’s planned projects intend to host newly planted Mediterranean forest on around 25% of their footprint, in line with guidelines published by the province of Brindisi in August. Struggle for land The opposition to new solar from local authorities and civil groups is mirrored across Italy. Brindisi was a magnet for PV during the five iterations of the Conto Energia feed-in tariff which expired in 2013 and hosts a significant volume of solar generation capacity as a result. High solar radiation and favorable geography were bolstered by regional legislation which permitted solar facilities up to 1 MW in size without the need for environmental approvals. Predictably, that led to large scale projects being developed in 1 MW blocks. Apulia is the capital of Italian solar with more than 2.65 GW of solar generation capacity, according to Italian energy agency the Gestore dei Servizi Energetici, and also boasts the largest average project size – 54.8 ...

The government of Bangladesh has extended an incentive scheme opened last year to encourage local firms to manufacture and export solar modules. Dhaka pays solar manufacturers 10% of the value of their exports in a bid to foster a domestic PV industry and state-owned lender Bangladesh Bank recently announced the scheme will be extended to cover this financial year. The nation has a small panel manufacturing industry with an annual production capacity of 100 MW. Bangladeshi manufacturers claim their products, which are chiefly shipped to Nepal and the Philippines, can generate 320 W and boast 19.5% efficiency. The government already grants a tax waiver for imports of solar raw materials and the announcement the cash incentive scheme would be extended was welcomed by Munawar Misbah Moin, president of the Solar Module Manufacturers Association of Bangladesh (SMMAB). “Though the export volume is very small until now, the incentives will definitely help the sector,” Moin told pv magazine. More to be done However, the chief of the trade body called for more help from Dhaka to encourage the use of panels in the domestic market. Moin on Sunday suggested the government apply a 30% local content requirement for modules used in public solar projects and installation programs and said Bangladeshi panels should be prioritized for the government’s plan to install rooftop PV on all public buildings. Moin cited the example of neighboring India, where he said Indian made panels have been allocated 2.5 GW of 10 GW of government-driven solar power project capacity. In China, said the SMMAB president, local content requirements make it near impossible for foreign panels to get a foothold in the market. “The basic demand of a product should come from [the] local market,” said Moin. “And the government should help create the situation.” Association general secretary Golam Baki Masud said Indian module manufacturers enjoy an 18% cash incentive linked to export value alongside a tax waiver on imported raw materials. “We need long term loans and loans at 4-5% interest as a green industry,” he said. Masud also repeated calls for a restriction on the volume of solar module imports to Bangladesh and for the application of standards to ensure poor quality products will not be used on PV projects.

Solar analyst the Asia-Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory has offered hope the world’s biggest solar marketplace may experience an end-of year resurgence in installations – if only in the form of domestic rooftop arrays. With China’s National Energy Administration this morning confirming the world’s biggest solar marketplace had added less than 16 GW of new solar generation capacity to the end of last month, it appeared widespread talk of an impressive year-end PV rally in China had been overblown. Only 4.59 GW of new solar capacity was added between July and September but the AECEA has pointed out that within that modest figure – less than half the roughly 10 GW added in the same period last year – some 920 MW of household solar capacity was installed last month alone. That domestic solar surge is down to the fact household solar will continue to benefit from the RMB0.18/kWh ($0.025) solar feed-in tariff until the end of October – on Thursday. An October boom? With a bumper September having taken Chinese household solar past its annual new capacity target of 3.5 GW to 4.27 GW by the end of last month, the AECEA reckons the figure could end up having risen to 5 GW once the October stats are added in. Whether that is a sufficient basis for predicting domestic solar will continue to benefit from a feed-in tariff even into the subsidy-free solar world envisaged by Beijing from 2021 onwards, as posited by the AECEA, is a different matter. Although the rooftop surge will be seen as a positive, however, the AECEA has once again revised down its estimate of the volume of new solar capacity it expects to be deployed in China this year, to a 20-24 GW figure well below what it was predicting at the turn of the year. In fact, the AECEA estimates give a reliable impression of the unpredictability that has hit China during a year when months of solar policy uncertainty was followed by delayed announcements of the new guidelines, and all at a time when the price of solar modules continued to plummet. The consultancy initially predicted China would see 35-40 GW of new solar capacity this year, before reducing the figure to 28-34 GW as the authorities failed to announce a new solar incentive regime. When the new rules did materialize, the AECEA estimate rose to 38-42 GW before again falling away, to 24-32 GW. Now it has fallen again, with only two months left for any late rally to lift the figure.