Floating in the Alps
Romande Energie is deploying a 448 kW floating array on the surface of Lac des Toules, a reservoir located at an altitude of 1,810 meters in the Swiss Alps. The installation will likely operate under heavy weather conditions, but it is also expected to produce 50% more power than similar projects built in the plain.
EU to help anchor lower price for floating solar power
The Fresher project, funded by the EU’s European Maritime and Fishery Fund, aims to develop better and cheaper mooring and anchoring systems for floating solar. The initiative is backed by Portugal utility EDP, which has recently begun to install floating projects.
Put your hands on a floating PV system
A new handbook published by the World Bank and Solar Research Institute of Singapore contains advice on how to plan and build floating PV. The guide is intended to help developers with site identification; feasibility studies; finance; environmental and social issues; procurement and construction; and operations and maintenance.
BayWa commissions 25 MW of floating PV arrays in the Netherlands
Floating PV installations in Asia may be much larger but the trend is catching on in the EU and, pending a supportive regulatory environment and incentives, the technology could offer several dozen gigawatts of generation capacity in Europe.
South Korea’s 2.1 GW floating solar project overcomes first hurdle
The Korean Ministry of Defense has said the huge project will not interfere with the flight operations of U.S. forces stationed in a base near Saemangeum, an estuarine tidal flat on the coast of the Yellow Sea where the plant would be deployed.
Spain and Brazil the world’s ‘solar investment hotspots’ but eyes on Vietnam
Analysts at Fitch Solutions have published a report singling out Spain and Brazil as ‘outperformers’ in the global solar market and labelled Vietnam the “market to watch”. The analysts expect surging growth from the Southeast Asian nation to continue in the coming decade.
Indian fossil fuel giant NTPC tenders 1 GW of solar capacity
Developers have until November 18 to submit bids for projects anywhere in India. The projects are to be set up on a develop, build, demonstrate and transfer basis.
Vietnamese hydropower company secures financing for 47 MW floating PV project
Da Mi has $37 million for a floating solar project it wants to build at its hydropower plant in Binh Thuan province. If built before 2022, the project will be entitled to a feed-in tariff of $0.0769/kWh – provided a draft FIT scheme being considered by the government is passed into law.
Who has won contract for Indonesia’s controversial floating PV project?
The government was forced to hold a tender for the 200 MW Cirata Dam scheme after originally awarding the deal to UAE developer Masdar. With August 19 named as the date to announce the auction results, nobody is any the wiser as yet.
Bangladesh’s first state-owned solar plant comes online
The new generation facility was financed by the Asian Development Bank and built by Chinese company ZTE Corp. The project will sell power to the grid for $0.065/kWh, a record low for solar in the country.
