Maldives’ Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Technology has floated a tender for the engineering, procurement, construction of a 40 MW/40 MWh battery energy storage systems (BESS) across 11 select islands. The BESS are set to improve renewable energy penetration for island grids and ensure efficient operation of generators in the solar-diesel hybrid generation mix.
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RUSNANO and the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) plan to work together for implementing projects in various spheres of renewable and clean energy including green hydrogen as well as other high-tech sectors in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). An agreement to this effect has been signed recently.
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The Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL) has floated a tender to develop a 740 MW ground-mount solar project on vacant parcels of lands owned by the Indian Railways. In addition to setting up the projects, the developers will be required to procure connectivity for the projects with the transmission system owned by the state transmission utility or the central transmission utility. Further, the connectivity must be set up through a dedicated transmission line for individual or pooled projects.
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BP Plc has announced that it is set to acquire a 9 GW solar project pipeline in the US from developer 7X Energy Inc. The asset will be developed by BP’s joint venture Lightsource bp. BP will buy the project portfolio together with 1 GW of “safe harbour” equipment for $180 million. The purchase is expected to be completed within the next 30 days.The projects will be located across 12 states with the greatest concentrations in Texas and the Midwest. Schemes totaling 2.2 GW are expected to reach a final investment decision by 2025, with the balance progressing by 2030.
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South Korea has announced that it plans to build a 6 GW offshore wind park on floating foundations. The project will be located off the coast of Ulsan City at a proposed investment of KRW 36 trillion ($32.1 billion). The overall investment will come from both the public and private sectors and is expected to create about 210,000 jobs. The project is set to be completed by 2030.
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Malaysian developer Ditrolic Solar Group has announced that it has commissioned the largest solar plant in Bangladesh. The project has a capacity of 73.1 MW and is located in the Mymensingh district, 100 km north of Dhaka. The solar plant is signed under a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Bangladesh Power Development Board. It was built with an investment of around $90 million and will supply power to the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh at an unspecified tariff.
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The Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) has introduced cross-border electricity trade (CBET) on its platform. The initiative is a step towards building an integrated South Asian regional power market. Nepal was the first country to avail the benefit of buying day ahead power from the power exchange through NVVN Limited. It was also reported that increased efforts will be made to improve power trade in Bhutan and Myanmar in the future
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Fujitsu Group’s largest facility, Fujitsu’s Kawasaki main office in Japan, will source 100 per cent of its energy requirements from renewable energy from April 1, 2021. This will account for roughly 5 per cent of the company’s total electricity consumption in Japan. The company plans to implement this on a full scale at its locations throughout Japan.
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VRB Energy has announced the signing of a framework agreement for a 100 MW solar photovoltaic and 100 MW / 500 MWh vanadium flow battery integrated power station project in Xiangyang city in the Hubei Province of China. Additionally, the agreement also includes the construction of the first 50 MW per annum of a new 1,000 MW per annum “Gigafactory” manufacturing facility for the company’s energy storage systems, and a vanadium flow battery intelligent energy research and development institute.
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Chinese polysilicon producer Xinte Energy has secured a polysilicon supply contract with a new entity, Qinghai Gaojing Solar Energy Technology. Xinte Energy will supply Qinghai Gaojing Solar Energy Technology Co with a total of 152,400 metric tonnes of polysilicon from July 2021 to December 2025 with prices being negotiated monthly. It is estimated that the contract could generate revenue of approximately $2.6 billion over the four and a half year agreement.
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JA Solar has planned the development of a manufacturing hub in the Qidong Economic Development Zone in the Jiangsu Province, China. The hub will have a PV cell production capacity and module assembly of 20 GW each. The project is estimated to cost approximately $1.56 billion over its four-year construction period. Further, JA Solar signed the investment framework agreement for the new manufacturing hub with the People’s Government of Qidong City, Jiangsu Province.
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TNB Renewables has announced that it will acquire a 39 per cent stake in five rooftop solar projects developed by the Sunseap Group in southern Vietnam. The projects have a cumulative installed capacity of 21.6 MW and were completed in December 2020 under the country’s “Feed-in-Tariff 2” Program. The five projects have power purchase agreements for 20 years with Vietnam Electricity, a state-owned utility
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he Solar Philippines Corporation has announced plans to build a large power complex combining 2 GWp of solar power capacity, 6 GWp of energy storage, and a 600 MW diesel backup plant in Nasugbu, Batangas City. The company has secured a Solar Service Energy Contract from the Department of Energy giving it exclusive right to explore, develop and utilise the solar resource. Solar Philippines has also secured about 2,000 hectares of land for the project in Nasugbu.
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The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and Shell Foundation (the UK-registered charity) have announced a new collaboration that will promote renewable energy uptake in low-income areas of Africa and Asia. The collaboration aims to improve gender inclusion and to bring affordable renewable energy to more than 5 million people in these regions.
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Bangladesh’s overall power system utilisation has fallen again in FY2019-20 to just 40%, down from 43% in the prior year. Instead of replacing the coal power projects with LNG, the Bangladesh government should consider using the land set aside for these projects for renewable energy installations. Another key part of a successful response to Bangladesh’s overcapacity problem would be investment in the transmission and distribution system.
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The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy of South Korea has announced the sanctioning of the purchase of electricity from renewable sources by industrial and general electric consumers as part of the RE100 initiative. The parties must register at the Korea Energy Agency and the electricity will be procured through self-generation, green premium system, third party power purchase agreement, or the purchase of renewable energy certificates.
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While China’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2060 is a good start, electricity demand is already forecast to double by 2050 (from 2017 levels). It therefore must urgently step up its efforts to improve energy efficiency, adopt green and low-carbon energy, expand energy storage, deploy carbon capture and sequestration technologies, and develop a framework for low-carbon urbanization. Many of the needed technologies are already available, and East Asia has the scale to bring down their cost to a level that would enable widespread adoption.
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Vietnam backed by the Asian Development Bank has proposed launching tenders for 400 MW of floating solar projects in the country. Renewable energy developers will be able to bid for 50-100 MW under the first batch and 300 MW in the second batch. The ADB is looking for six consultants with environmental, social, and financial expertise to support the auction.
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Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, a Canadian pension fund is investing $1-billion in a Taiwanese offshore wind project in its latest of a string of renewable-energy acquisitions. The Qubéc-based fund will acquire a 50 per cent stake in the Greater Changhua 1 Offshore Wind Farm developed by Ørsted. The acquired project has a total installed capacity of 605 MW and is valued at $3.4 billion.
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British electricity and gas supplier, Octopus Energy Group has announced a major strategic partnership with Tokyo Gas, one of Japan’s leading utilities to launch the Octopus Energy brand in Japan. It will be operated by TG Octopus Energy, a 30:70 joint venture backed by working capital and growth funding provided by Tokyo Gas.
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