Category: Solar PhotoVoltaics

Since 1999, the Renewable Energy in Rural Markets Project (PERMER) has aimed to put an end to this situation. Supported by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the initiative connects homes and schools to clean energy sources such as solar panels and windmills.

So far, around 25,000 residential customers and nearly 2,000 schools have been reached, and 300 solar thermal stoves, furnaces and water heaters have been installed.

Also 2,000 users in small, isolated communities have benefited from small power systems (generation and distribution networks). The project has also included almost 400 public buildings, such as health centers, community centers, as well as Gendarmerie (Police force) and National Parks Administration’s stations.

In PERMER’s proposed scheme, photovoltaic or wind system are installed for the user, who then pays for its operation and maintenance dependent on their means.

“The project ensures that someone is responsible for the proper functioning of the systems at the provincial level, which allows it to be sustainable in the long term,” said Lucia Spinelli, Manager of PERMER on behalf of the World Bank.

Many rural Argentineans in 19 provinces found their quality of life improved through access to electricity.

“In the Impenetrable Chaco, the population is very spread out and so solar panels have had a significant impact, as they have managed to supply 14% of users,” said Raul Garcia, an Official in the Secretariat of Energy for the Province of Chaco who has been participating in PERMER over the last 12 years.

With an area spanning 12,000 square km of islands, the province of Entre Rios was an ideal candidate to join the initiative. It did so in 2010 and since then, two schools and 850 rural households have received photovoltaic systems.

“The children of fishermen can now go to school twice a week and do chores at home, it is not necessary to travel several miles to buy kerosene and it is much easier to charge mobile phones,” said Alberto Alcain, Alternative Energies Coordinator in Entre Rios.

“People have adapted well to technology and began to ask for solar panels instead of electricity lines,” asserted Graciela Pedro, who’s in charge of the Alternative Energies office at the Energy Agency of Neuquén.

There, all the rural schools and nearly 2,000 homes have solar panels. “The impact is rewarding. Families have more hours in the day to do their activities, such as women weaving and other crafts,” Pedro added.

Phoenix Solar says that it has completed the largest open-land solar installation in Saudi Arabia.

The solar farm has a capacity of 3.5 MW and has been constructed on land belonging to the world’s largest oil research centre, the “King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center” in Riyadh.

On an area of 55,000 m² a total of 12,684 Suntech modules were installed in a construction time of 20 months. They will produce 5,800 MWh of solar electricity annually and thus save 4,900 tonnes of CO2 emissions. The central inverters were supplied by SMA.

In order to combat the expected high temperatures and sand storms, Phoenix Solar placed the generator connection boxes, which are normally in the solar field, in the well-insulated and air-conditioned inverter building.

According to the planners, this measure will enable significantly easier maintenance as well as extending the lifetime of the solar power station.

Ron Shen, Suntech Vice President Asia Pacific, declared that this project is an important milestone for the development of the solar industry in Saudi Arabia. Andreas Hänel, CEO of Phoenix Solar, added: “It was recently announced that Saudi Arabia plans to install 41 GW of solar capacity over the next 20 years. With this first-class reference project we are now well-established here in the region.”

The Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Limited (RRECL) has again invited proposal from any interested company or bidding consortium for setting up 100 MW of solar PV projects and 100 MW of solar thermal projects under the Rajasthan Solar Policy 2011.

The selection of these solar power projects shall be through a tariff based competitive bidding process.

According to the press release the project sizes would be from 5 to 10 MW each. The winning bidder will be the company that offers the highest discount upon RRECL’s benchmark solar tariff of INR 8.42 (EUR 0.13) per kWh. A feed-in-tariff will be paid to the winning bidder for 25 years, who would have to supply power to the procurer in agreement with the terms and conditions of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). The last date for submission of bids through online form is January 11, 2013.

It may be recalled that RRECL had postponed its Request for Selection for solar power projects which was originally scheduled for March 19, 2012. Although the exact reasons for the postponement are not known, it is assumed that mounting losses of the state’s distribution company DISCOM could be the reason.

Unlike the National Solar Mission there is no compulsion for domestic contents of modules or cells and the bidder is free to choose any solar PV power generation technology – it may be crystalline silicon solar cell or thin film modules, concentrated PV or any other technology commercially established.

Also noteworthy is a mechanism through which DISCOM is not liable to make payments to the project developer, as the project developer will be signing a PPA with RRECL, that will also provide payment security to the developer. RRECL in turn will supply the procured solar power to DISCOM through a Power Sale Agreement (PSA)

The state government of Chhattisgarh in central India will become the first state of the country which is going to replace kerosene powered lanterns for lighting homes by LED based solar lanterns and solar study lamps.

On December 5, 2012, the two programmes “One child One Solar lamp” and “Solar for each family” were launched. The state government decided it will distribute free solar lighting systems to 1.3 million families as well as free solar study lamps to about 1.65 million school students. The implementation of the scheme will cost the exchequer approximately Indian Rupees INR 2.05 billion (about € 30 million).

Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) will be the agency to implement the programme.

The scheme is based on findings of Census 2011 where it came to the fore that approximately 1.3 million families in Chhattisgarh are still deprived of electricity.

These families use kerosene or fire wood to illuminate their houses. The government provides a subsidy of INR 0.32 per litre of kerosene, while allocated quota for each family is about 3 to 4 litres kerosene every month. Thus the government spends approximately INR 100 to INR 120 per month per family. In addition, each family spends INR 50 to INR 60 per month. The distribution of solar lanterns to about 1.3 million families will save the government subsidies of approximately INR 1.43
billion annually and it will save family expenditure of approximately INR 0.78 billion. Solar lanterns would cost close to INR 1,200 each and solar study lamps will only cost INR 300 each.

Costa Rica is celebrating the opening of the country’s first large-scale solar power plant.

The solar park, which was built on the slopes of Miravalles Volcano and is comprised of 4,300 solar panels, will generate 1.2 GWh per year, enough to electrify about 600 homes.

“Today we not only took another step in terms of increasing installed capacity to continue generating more electricity and meet our economy’s demands, but we also confirmed that our growth will continue to rely on renewable energy generation,” said President Laura Chinchilla in the inauguration.

The project wa originally proposed by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, and developed by GeSolar, a Chinese manufacturer of solar products, and Greenersys, a Coasta Rican supplier of renewable energy products.

Environment Minister René Castro said the project is important because it marks the entry of Costa Rica to the production of large-scale electricity based on solar energy, and “also mark[s] the way to bring electricity to thousands of families across the country in the future.”

The project was financed by the Japanese Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (MINAET), which provided a $10 million grant under the Japanese government’s Project for Introduction of Clean Energy by System Solar Electricity Generation for the Government of the Republic of Costa Rica programme.

French automaker Renault has come up with a fabulously green way to shelter the cars that roll out of its assembly lines.

The company has recently installed a canopy soaked through with solar panels that has been termed as “the world’s largest photovoltaic system in the auto industry”.

The canopy generates green energy and also shelters the company’s cars beneath. Six of Renault’s production sites including Douai, Maubeuge, Flins, Batilly, Sandouville and Cléon will make use of these systems covering 40 hectares or 400,000 square meters in all.

Capable of generating 52,600 MWh of electricity a year and reducing Co2 emissions by 200-tons annually, these solar panels will prove to be a boon for Renault, helping the automaker substantially reduce its carbon footprint in France.