Welcome back to another busy week! This time, we are covering why COVID-19 is NOT the worst thing that has ever happened to German PV industry, how the African governments are shoring up their economy via solar power, which party the US ITC favors in the Hanwha Q Cell v.s. Jinko Solar case, and many more!
- Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Your Monday Briefings is now divided into 2 sections:
- The 1st section has all the solar news related to COVID-19
- The 2nd section has the solar news which has little to do with the pandemic.
If you want to read news unrelated to the coronavirus, you can simply scroll down to the 2nd section of the article.
SECTION 1-1: COVID-19 WATCH
Africa
PV industry brings a ray of sunshine into Africa under COVID-19 crisis
Africa is in trouble. The coronavirus-induced lockdown caused the power demand to fall. And the oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia did not help the continent's oil and gas industries.
Here are some of the measures taken by the African countries to remedy the situation:
Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has made arrangements, so that residential PV would be available for people. And health centers will be provided with solar mini-grid solutions.
Ghana's Mankoadze Fisheries and Royal Senchi Hotel and Resort signed up for the pay-as-you-go solar distribution system provided by German distributor Redavia. The system will be free for the first 6 months.
Source: pv magazine
Australia
COVID-19 has dealt a severe blow to Australia’s renewable energy industry.
According to Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy’s prediction, 65% of Australia’s PV and 67% of wind projects that have not reached financial close this year are located in NSW. Rystad believes that the companies being impacted are Hong Kong’s UPC, France’s Neoen, Australia’s Wollar Solar and Canadian Solar.
Source: pv magazine
Germany
COVID-19 Is Not to Blame, for Once
The German PV industry insiders believe that jobs for commercial and industrial rooftop PV are going to sink in the country in the upcoming months.
Surprisingly, COVID-19 is not the main culprit.
It is Germany’s PV policy which the country’s PV developers have to thank for the gloomy market sentiment.
Germany’s determined to terminate the public subsidy for PV projects of generation capacities of 750 kW or less, as soon as Germany has reached the installed PV capacity of 52 GW on subsidy.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the cap on PV subsidies will be removed at a UN climate summit in last September.
However, at the time of writing, the restriction of PV subsidies remains. Therefore the German PV developers are not optimistic regarding the job losses their industry is facing in the foreseeable future.
Source: pv magazine
India
COVID-19 Lockdown Will Have Bigger Impact on the Rooftop PV Than Utility Scale PV in India
Things may be improving in China, but India is just starting to feel the shocks of COVID-19.
It is inevitable for the installed PV capacity to sink because the buyers will still be struggling financially.
India's credit rating agency CARE says rooftop PV will be hit harder by the pandemic due to India's stringent restriction over people's movement.
What makes the matters worse is the fact that most rooftop PV companies are small- and medium enterprises, which are less financially resilient to absorb the economic shocks.
Source: pv magazine
USA
COVID-19 is going to drive global PV forecast down, unemployment rate up, eliminate tax equity for PV projects. However, the renowned solar investor Jim Spano sees a glimmer of hope in all this gloom and doom.
After the hellish credit crunch in 2008, Program 1603, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009, was made to pay for profitable renewable energy projects. This program has secured $26 billion for nearly 110,000 renewable energy projects.
Although the usual tax equity finance model, which is the go-to financing model for solar, is likely to be discontinued, Spano believes that a new public policy with a coordinated interest against the climate change will be launched and bring the U.S. solar to a new high.
Source: pv magazine
SECTION 2-1: NON-COVID-19 Regional Market News
And for those of you who are sick of COVID-19 news, here is the news that is NOT(entirely) related to COVID-19.
China
1.Nationwide: 2020 PV Subsidy Policy Finalized!
In 2020, the PV subsidy is finalized 2 months earlier than last year. Here is the summary:
- The total amount of the subsidy for PV in 2020 is about US$212 million (RMB 1.5 billion).
- 1/3 of the total amount will be allotted to residential rooftop solar projects, which is about US$70.69 million (RMB 500 million).
- 2/3 of the total amount will be allotted to auction projects (distributed as well as utility PV projects), which is about US$141.38 million (RMB 1 billion).
The budgeted amount has shrunken by 50% from US$424.14 million (RMB 3 billion) in 2019.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has released the 2020 guided electricity prices for the utility-scale and distributed PV projects.
The guided electricity prices for utility solar power are US$0.05 (RMB 0.35), US$0.06 (RMB 0.40) and US$0.07 (RMB 0.49) for zone 1, 2 and 3.
The subsidy for residential PV and certain distributed PV projects have been substantially reduced by US$0.014 /kWh (RMB 0.1 /kWh) and US$0.007 /kWh (RMB 0.05 /kWh), respectively.
2.Anhui
Huaneng is currently in the middle of tender process for the EPC for the energy storage system of Xiaojian Phase II wind farm project, which is located in Mengmeng County of Anhui Province.
The wind power capacity installation for Xutong Phase II will be 50 MW. The deadline for bid submissions is April 28, 2020.
Regarding the EPC tender for the wind energy storage system in Mengcheng County, the total installed capacity of the project's energy storage system bid section I is 150MW.
The project will be built in two phases, 50 MW will be completed in the first phase, 100 MW will be completed in the second phase.
The deadline for submitting bid documents is April 28, 2020.
3.Beijing
"Special Funding Support Projects for Energy Conservation in 2020" are publically solicited in Chaoyang District, Beijing.
The scope of the special funding support includes projects that involve energy storage technology, new energy and renewable energy development and utilization, and contract energy management.
The submission time is from April 8 to May 29.
CDB New Energy is planning to build a distributed energy storage system on the office premises. This move could provide a more flexible power supply for the venue and an application of peak shaving and valley filling technology of energy storage systems.
Adopting the said technologies could reduce electricity costs and peak-load pressure.
The currently ongoing procurement involves electrochemical energy storage system equipment, including lithium battery packs, bidirectional converter PCS cabinets, control cabinets, monitoring cabinets, fire safety cabinets, air conditioning, cables, circuit breakers and so on.
The deadline for bid submissions is April 28, 2020.
France
Australia’s Power Ledger to Provide Blockchain Enabled Renewable Energy Technology to French Market
Partnering up with France’s ekWateur, the Australian energy trading platform Power Ledger is entering the French renewable energy market with its vision product – The “Choose Your Own Energy” trading scheme.
The participants of this scheme can choose what renewable energy of which location to buy.
Power Ledger offers this service to 220,000 electricity meters in France at the moment.
Source: Taiyang News
SECTION 2-1: NON-COVID-19 Company News
Chint Solar
Chint Solar and the investment promotion team from the Yumen City New Energy and Equipment Manufacturing Industry have co-host the signing ceremony of the integrated energy project.
This project involves the planned construction of grid parity and complementary energy storage projects in Yumen Dongzhen PV Industry Park and Yumen Huahai Gigawatt PV & Geothermal Administrative Base. The planned installed capacity is approximately 500 MW.
Ørsted
Ørsted Completes Sage Draw Wind Project
Ørsted has announced its completion of Sage Draw Wind project, a 338MW wind farm that is located between Garza and Lynn Counties in Texas.
The 120-wind turbine project will be able to power 120,000 homes annually.
Jinko Solar
US ITC favors Jinko Solar in the patent lawsuit of Hanwha Q Cells
The Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ") of U.S. International Trade Commission ALJ finds no Infringement of Hanwha Q CELLS Patent.
ALJ MaryJoan McNamara issued an initial determination, which grants Jinko Solar's motion for summary determination of non-infringement.
The Commission will review the ruling of the ALJ and issue its opinion on the said ruling within 30 days.
