New solar in Africa can be established at a going rate of just nine U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour, according to investors at yesterday’s opening day of the Africa Energy Forum. States should embark on a solar gold rush to secure global investment for independent power producer (IPP) led projects, said delegates at the event, which is being held in Lisbon this week. Although schemes such as the Scaling Solar program run by World Bank private-sector arm the International Finance Corporation can lead to even lower tariffs, African states unwilling to participate in the initiative can still secure nine-cent solar using the IPP model, said delegates. Burkina Faso energy minister Bachir Ismael Ouedraogo, raised the $0.09/kWh figure and told the forum his country’s fossil fuel electricity generation is expensive, at $0.20-0.25/kWh. Faster pace required Despite the falling cost of PV technology and rising interest from potential investors, the pace of solar development in Africa is slow, argued Andrew Herscowitz, coordinator of Power Africa, a U.S. initiative established by former president Barack Obama to widen access to electricity in the continent. Often, added Herscowitz, African energy ministers encourage renewables projects only to realize fellow ministers have no idea about them or actively oppose their development. He added, the diversity of cultures seen across the 54-nation continent also makes it vital to consider how locals conduct business. Investors will not wait forever and will move on to other promising markets, such as India, unless African states work with them to bring projects to financial close in a timely manner, warned Herscowitz. The Power Africa representative did not appear hopeful mini and microgrids would offer an alternative to IPP projects, mainly because such schemes are not yet commercially viable. Instead, Herscowitz argued, utility scale solar projects offer the way forward for African power development. Governmental focus would be required, added Herscowitz, to designate development sites and bring in supportive policy to enable gigawatt-scale solar generation capacity pipelines to take shape in many African states over the next decade.

Solar panel maker ARTsolar has filed a petition with the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa, seeking customs tariffs on all imported crystalline silicon PV panels. In the document, submitted at the end of March, the manufacturer complained there was no protection for module manufacturers in the country, as existed in the U.S. and Europe, although in the latter case trade measures were lifted last year. “A number of photovoltaic module/panel manufacturers had ceased their production operations in the SACU region due to high competition from low-priced imports,” the petitioner wrote, in reference to the Southern African Customs Union area which also includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini. Rising costs Andy Pegg, CEO of the SegenSolar (Pty) Ltd South African subsidiary of U.K. solar distributor Segen Ltd, said the introduction of import tariffs could see the price of PV modules rise by 10% overnight in South Africa. “The 10% tariff will, ultimately, be passed down to the customer or installer in the form of increased product prices – which could see demand plummet and profit margins squeezed, particularly for smaller distributors,” he told pv magazine. Pegg added, the major problem with tariffs in South Africa would be the lack of government support for the sector. For tariffs to be effective, he said, the policy and regulatory environment must support the growth and supply of the renewables sector. “For example, China has seen explosive growth in solar PV power generation due to continually adjusting its solar energy targets upward in line with demand – which increased from 10% in 2012 to 55% in 2017,” he said. It’s all about Eskom Pegg also highlighted the operational and financial problems of state-owned utility Eskom as a handicap to the country’s energy sector. Last month, Eskom required an emergency $355 million bailout to prevent a debt default when it was already struggling to fix crippling power shortages. Media reports claimed the utility also failed to receive ZAR7 billion ($485 million) in loan payments from the Chinese Development Bank this month. “It seems more likely the proposed import tariffs would make it explicitly easier for the state-owned Eskom to keep its monopoly on energy supply in South Africa,” Pegg said. Chris Ahlfeldt, energy specialist at Blue Horizon Energy Consulting Services, said tariffs would probably have a net negative impact on jobs for the domestic solar industry, adding they would slow down customer adoption through higher prices. “Solar PV installers create many more local jobs than the manufacturing industry globally, so the focus should be on accelerating growth in the industry as a whole to create jobs and not slowing it down with tariffs,” he said to pv magazine. ‘Incentives, not penalties’ According to Ahlfeldt, the best way to incentivize localization of industry is by creating stable demand. Rather than introducing tariffs, he said, the government should focus ...

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From pv magazine Germany. Germany’s Federal Network Agency, the Bundesnetzagentur, has reported newly installed PV capacity of approximately 349.5 MW for March. Of that capacity, 334 MW were installed under the country’s FIT mechanism. The Bonn-based Bundesnetzagentur reported 28 MW of ground-mounted systems were built in March outside the tender scheme. A meager 868 kW of rooftop system capacity was installed under the tenant electricity scheme. Overall, around 1.27 GW of new PV capacity was added in Germany in the first three months of the year, even with the Bundesnetzagentur revising down its January and February figures by 40 MW each, to 540 MW and 380 MW, respectively. An agency spokesperson told pv magazine the figures are regularly adjusted retrospectively. The revised statistics mean Germany reached a cumulative solar capacity of just short of 47.2 GW by the end of March. The Bundesnetzagentur has recalculated the level of FIT payment for the next three months, with the payment falling as installation milestones are reached. Larger-than-expected levels of new installations in the first quarter mean the FIT will reduce by 1.4% from this month until July. The feed-in tariff for PV systems with a capacity of up to 10 kW will fall to €0.1095/kWh. For systems up to 40 kW the payment will be €0.1065/kWh and for systems up to 100 kW, €0.0838/kWh. Other plants with a capacity of up to 100 kW will receive a fixed €0.0759/kWh.