Weekly Market Update

01 EMEA

Germany: Storage demand among those interested in photovoltaics increased by 74% in 2021

• The demand for photovoltaic systems in combination with?battery storage increased ?sharply last year.?This emerges from a report by the German Contract Agency (DAA).?The agency is an online service provider for regenerative energy technology that brings together specialist companies and end customers for trade services in the field of photovoltaics and heating technology.?
• In November 2020, around 45% of those interested in photovoltaic systems also asked about storage.?A year later it was already 62%.?However, the total number of inquiries also increased by 71%.?In absolute numbers, the demand for the combination of photovoltaics and storage, which was placed on the DAA portals, increased by 74% compared to 2020.?According to the agency, an increase in the absolute number of inquiries by 119 percent compared to the same period last year was particularly noticeable during the second half of 2021.
• Since July 2021 in particular, there has been a sharp increase in inquiries.?The reason for this could be the changed conditions of the Federal Funding for Efficient Buildings (BEG).?Storage facilities have been funded under KfW loans 261 and 262 since mid-2021.?According to the assessment of the online portal operator, this could have aroused the interest of many.
• But the list of reasons for interest is longer.?The lower feed-in tariff could have been another market driver for storage.?If the feed-in tariff is low, solar self-consumption optimization becomes an important step in order to operate the system economically.?In addition, there was an EEG amendment last year, according to which the proportionate EEG levy on self-consumption only applies to systems with a size of 30 kilowatts or more.?Anyone who has space for a large photovoltaic system ?prefers to use most of the electricity themselves through storage instead of feeding it in massive amounts.?The increased energy prices from the second half of 2021 also have their share in the high demand for photovoltaics and storage.?Especially since there is no relaxation in sight here.

The Netherlands’ Friesland and Gelderland regions reach maximum grid capacity

• Dutch power and gas provider?Liander ?– which serves the provinces of Gelderland and Noord-Holland and parts of Flevoland, Friesland and Zuid-Holland – has announced that new grid bottlenecks have arisen?in the provinces of Friesland and Gelderland and the maximum network capacity has been reached in both regions.
• In December,?Netbeheer Nederland , the Dutch association of national and regional power network operators, updated the congestion map for the high-voltage and medium-voltage grids. Dutch electricity transmission system operator (TSO)?Tennet ?also recently developed an?interactive online map ?showing the locations in the country where the power grid is most congested.
• Over the past two years, Liander has implemented several measures to increase grid capacity in several Dutch regions afflicted by?grid constraints , which are preventing more renewable energy plants from coming online. These include the deployment of?two giant transformers ?and the application of?congestion management to a bottleneck in the grid .

Agrivolaics to shine in France after presidential recognition

• Solar integrated into agricultural production, or?agrivoltaics , looks set to play a major role in solar development in?France . The application received a special mention from President Emmanuel Macron when he announced his government’s proposed energy policy on Feb. 10, which included a?100 GW by 2050 solar goal .
• Xavier Daval , chair of the French solar commission, SER-Soler, told?pv magazine?that the recognition of agrivoltaics as one of the “three pillars” of solar development points to its importance in PV development in the country.
• “We have to understand that [in the 100 GW policy announcement] for the very first time solar is identified as a solution,” said Daval. “Second, the president spoke about agri-PV, he uses the word as the third pillar of solar, with the three being rooftop, ground-mounted, and agrivoltaics.”
• Daval noted that the 100 GW solar target should be viewed through the lens of it having been made during an election campaign. Alongside the solar goal, Macron announced that the country would build six new EPR2 type nuclear reactors under the policy.
• “The game is not over [for solar],” remarked Daval. While the 100 GW by 2050 goal may appear impressive, it does represent around 5 GW of annual installations – well below the ambition of other European countries.
• The first round of the French presidential election will be held on April 10.

French rail operator launches tender for 156 PV carports

• SNCF Gares and Connexions , a unit of French railway operator?SNCF , has launched an?expression of interest ?for the deployment of solar carports at 156 train stations.
• The solarisation of SNCF Gares & Connexions property assets is fully in line with the company's strategic plan. Gateways to sustainable mobility, stations must make people want to take the train and be exemplary in terms of environmental standards. To meet its solarization objectives, SNCF Gares & Connexions relies on a rich and varied land potential: station car parks, roofs of passenger buildings, large passenger halls and platform shelters. The car parks on which photovoltaic shade structures will be installed represent the largest volume of m2 available.
• It wants to deploy 47 MW of PV capacity by 2025. The tender is part of a plan to install up to 200MW of solar carport capacity by 2030.
• The winning bidder in the procurement exercise will take responsibility for the design, investment, construction, operation and maintenance of the PV installations.?The electricity will be sold by the future partner to the public electricity distribution network, said SNCF Gares and Connexions.?

The future looks bright for UK solar

• The 730MW of solar generation capacity added in?the UK ?last year means 2021 “was potentially the most significant year to date for the?UK solar industry ,” according to trade body?Solar Energy UK .
• The membership organization has reported a 36% rise on the 538MW of solar?added in 2020 ?and cited?rocketing gas prices ?as a motivation for?commercial and industrial ?electricity users to switch to photovoltaics.
• The trade body highlighted the 369MW of?rooftop solar ?capacity installed last year as the highest volume added since the 869MW of new rooftop panels recorded in 2015. Solar Energy UK pointed out, that historic figure included a significant volume of?subsidy support ?whereas the panels installed across the UK last year were?subsidy free .
• The fact all three main market segments –?residential ; commercial and industrial; and?large-scale ?projects – all experienced steady, unsubsidized growth indicated solar has finally come of age in the UK, according to the trade body.
• The UK reached 14.6GW of solar capacity at the end of December, with more than 5GW of it rooftop panels, according to Solar Energy UK.
• And the organization, which announced the statistics on Thursday, said the outlook remains positive with the Future Homes Standard supplementary building regulations to be applied to new homes from this year, with the government recently announcing its contracts-for-difference clean energy tenders will be?held annually ?from next year, and with Downing Street having pledged to remove what Solar Energy UK described as “unfair”?taxation of businesses which install solar .

UK Government boost for new renewable energy storage technologies

• Twenty-four projects based across the UK have been awarded the first round of funding through the Longer Duration Energy Storage competition, which is worth ￡68 million in total. These projects will benefit from a share of over ￡6.7 million to develop new energy storage technologies that can utilise stored energy as heat, electricity or as a low-carbon energy carrier like hydrogen. Ranging from the development of thermal batteries to converting energy to hydrogen, they have been selected because of their potential to improve technology performance and reduce the cost of meeting net zero.
• Today’s funding is awarded under Phase 1 of the?Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration competition?(LODES), part of the government’s ￡1 billion?Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. Phase 1 will be followed by Phase 2, which will see the remainder of the ￡68 million funding awarded to several of the most promising Phase 1 projects, to proceed to build and demonstrate their technology fully. Selecting projects for the next stage will take place upon the completion of Phase 1, whereby projects will be assessed based on their potential to commercialise their technologies.
• The energy storage projects receiving funding today include:

Sunamp’s EXTEND project, East Lothian, Scotland – will receive ￡149,893 for a feasibility study to further develop the storage duration of their thermal batteries. They will look to pair their heat batteries with household energy systems to tackle periods of low renewables generation on the grid

• Cheesecake Energy’s FlexiTanker project, Nottingham, England – will receive ￡139,411 to develop their thermal and compressed air energy storage technology to integrate more renewables into the grid, helping to fast-track the decarbonisation of the UK electricity system
• B9 Energy Storage’s Ballylumford Power-to-X project, Larne, Northern Ireland – will receive ￡986,082 to mobilise an innovative 20MW Power-to-X project at Ballylumford. Green hydrogen produced by electrolysers will be stored in underground salt caverns and used for transport and to displace natural gas in fuel blending trials. This project paves the way for future large-scale deployments connected to offshore windfarms

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-boost-for-new-renewable-energy-storage-technologies

Enel to build 1.6 GW/6.6 GWh of storage under Italy’s capacity market scheme

• Italian power utility Enel has announced it secured 12.9 GW of the 41.5 GW awarded by Italian grid operator Terna in its latest capacity market auction.
• “Enel was awarded 10.4 GW of existing capacity, 1 GW of foreign capacity, and 1.5 GW of new capacity, over two thirds of which will be met by battery energy storage systems (BESS) and the remainder by renewable facilities, as well as by the upgrading and refurbishment of some gas-fired plants already in service that are necessary to ensure the adequacy and safety of Italy’s electricity system,” the company said in a press release.
• A spokesperson from Enel revealed that the awarded storage capacity will come from 20 projects totaling 1.6 GW, with contracted capacity accounting for 1 GW. “Half of the project will be located on the island of Sardinia and the other half on mainland Italy,” the spokesperson added.
• The storage facilities will be built with?lithium-iron?phosphate (LFP) batteries and are expected to come online in 2024. Their combined storage capacity is 6.6 GWh.
• The company's spokesperson also revealed that around 40% of the remaining 11 GW of capacity awarded to Enel in the auction will come from renewable energy sources, while the remaining 60% will come from natural gas power plants.
• Italy began capacity market auctions in 2019. These procurement exercises have often been seen by the renewable energy industry as mechanisms to help conventional power producers retain market share.

?NEWS in SPAIN

• The price of electricity unleashes the fever for self-consumption. Installations for own consumption multiplied in 2021, adding just over 1.2 GW of power, more than double that of the previous year and the equivalent of what a nuclear reactor provides. With this increase, Spain already has 2.7 GW on rooftops, according to data from the employers' association of photovoltaic companies (UNEF).
• The map that reflects the boom of renewables in Spain: from having 41GW to projecting the construction of 145GW.
• The Government will regulate "in the coming months" the floating photovoltaic industry.
• Quantum Energy to invest 180 million in industrial self-consumption in Spain.

Source: https://elpais.com/economia/2022-02-20/los-precios-record-de-la-luz-desatan-la-fiebre-del-autoconsumo-es-un-ahorro-brutal.html

https://www.elespanol.com/invertia/empresas/energia/20220219/mapa-refleja-renovables-espana-tener-proyectar-construccion/650935032_0.html

https://elperiodicodelaenergia.com/gobierno-regulara-fotovoltaica-flotante/

https://www.capitalmadrid.com/2022/2/24/61838/quantum-energy-invertira-en-espana-180-millones-en-autoconsumo-industrial.html

?Emerging Markets

• MONTENEGRO: Montenegrin households and companies are showing great interest in installing PV panels for self-consumption. So far, 14,000 homes and 800 companies have applied to the public call of power utility Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) for the subsidized installation of PV panels, and the planned target was 3,000 for households and 500 for firms.

Source: https://balkangreenenergynews.com/great-interest-of-montenegrin-households-firms-for-solar-subsidies/

• CROATIA: Slovenia energy and oil provider Petrol Group announced it will build three photovoltaic plants with a combined capacity of 22 MW in Knin, Croatia. The projects will be built in three municipalities located in the southern county of ?ibenik-Knin, in the Dalmatian hinterland: Suknovci (10 MW), Pliskovo (6.3 MW), and Vrbnik (5.7 MW). They plants are set to begin commercial operations at the beginning of 2023.

Source: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/02/22/slovenian-oil-provider-builds-pv-plants-totaling-22-mw-in-croatia/

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• SERBIA: Renewable energy company CWP intends to build a 150 MW solar power plant near Zaje?ar, the largest one in its pipeline in Serbia. It will be the company’s second PV facility in Serbia, as it is also developing a 50 MW project near Sjenica.

Source: https://balkangreenenergynews.com/cwp-to-install-150-mw-solarina-solar-power-plant-near-zajecar/

?02 APAC

?New rules allow distributors to roll out standalone power systems in Australia

• The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has announced a package of new rules that enable distribution network businesses to supply their customers in the National Electricity Market (NEM) using standalone power systems (SAPS), where it is cheaper than maintaining a connection to the grid.
• The new rules allow electricity distributors in NEM jurisdictions that opt into the new regulatory framework to install SAPS for both individuals and communities where standalone energy generation may be cheaper, safer and more reliable than grid supply.
• AEMC Chair Anna Collyer said “We now have agreement on a staged implementation, beginning August 2022.”
• SAPS typically comprise a renewable energy supply such as solar PV panels coupled with a battery energy storage system and, where necessary, a back-up generator. The self-sufficient power units include both microgrids and individual power systems.
• The new?SAPS solutions are predicted to cater to several thousand customers?in the next decade and could expand faster as grid connections reached the end of their service lives.

NSW council considers making rooftop solar PV compulsory

• More than 3 million Australian households and small businesses have voluntarily installed rooftop solar systems but a local council in New South Wales is looking to mandate the continued rollout, investigating the potential for all new homes built in its region to be required to have solar PV panels on the roof.
• Shellharbour City Council on the South Coast of New South Wales (NSW) is poised to become the first local government area (LGA) in Australia to mandate the installation of solar PV panels on the rooftops of all new buildings constructed in the region. The motion was unanimously passed.
• Shellharbour homeowners have been playing a part with?more than 3,135 small-scale systems installed in the 2529 postcode area ?at 31 December 2021. With approximately 9,367 dwellings in the area, the rollout matches the Australian average of 33 solar panel systems per 100 households.
• The law’s new provisions apply to all new buildings as well as to major renovations of roofs in existing buildings with usable areas of more than 50 square meters.
• Those who don’t abide by the new PV requirements will have to pay a fine of almost $80,000 (€50,000) if it’s a non-residential building.

?NSW looks to quadruple size of first renewable energy zone after Eraring closure

• The NSW government has unveiled a new corridor for major transmission lines that could help it quadruple the size of the Central-West Renewable Energy Zone, one of five being created to replace the coal generators that are rapidly exiting the market.
• The news is significant, because NSW needs to fast-track the rollout of its REZs following the decision by Origin to close the biggest coal generator in the state, Eraring, seven years early, and moves by AGL bidders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Brookfield to do the same with Bayswater, the second biggest.
• With confirmation that coal generators are likely to close early than previously, NSW government is forced to accelerate its plans.
• NSW has promised to provide $84 million to the key bodies involved in the renewables roadmap so they can bulk up and fast-track the process.

?Japan unveils 2022 feed-in tariff levels for PV

• The Japanese government is proposing 20-year FITs lower than $0.10/kWh for rooftop PV and a ceiling price of $0.087/kWh for solar energy auctions. These incentive levels will likely be insufficient to stimulate demand given rising solar project costs.
• Japan's?Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ?(METI)?has published the?feed-in tariffs (FITs) ?it proposes to apply to solar installations with a capacity ranging from 10 to 250 kW and the feed-in premiums (FIPs) it wants to assign to solar projects over 250 kW that are selected through the country's?auction scheme ?in 2022.
• The following two project categories will be granted fixed tariffs without having to be selected in the procurement scheme:

??10-50 kW PV system installation: a fixed FIT of ￥11 ($0.096)/kWh

??50-250 kW PV system installation: a FIT of ￥10 ($0.087)/kWh

• The second group (50-1000 kW) group will be given the chance to participate in auctions awarding feed-in premiums and will be included in the procurement exercises. The METI has set a ceiling price of ￥10 ($0.087)/kWh and has decided to exclude all PV systems connected to the grid before January 17, 2022. Through the auction scheme, the minister hopes to allocate 665 MW of solar capacity across three different auctions.
• Both the FITs and feed-in premiums will be valid for 20 years and will also apply to?agrivoltaic ?and floating PV installations.
• At present, the necessary business profitability can only be secured at a FIT price of about ￥14/kWh as the cost of constructing solar power generation facilities in Japan is rising. It appears that METI is not looking to expand solar power generation through these FITs, but simply to keep FITs alive.

Source: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/02/24/japan-unveils-2022-feed-in-tariff-levels-for-pv/

?LG exits solar module business

• Korean electronics manufacturer?LG ?announced that it will close its solar module business by the end of June.
• “The decision comes as uncertainties in the global solar panel business continue to increase due to a variety of contributing factors, including the intensification of price competition and the rising cost of raw materials,” the company said in a statement. “LG will continue to stand behind its brand and the company will maintain support for customers of existing LG solar panels for a period of time after the business’s closure has been completed. Solar panel production itself will continue until the second quarter this year to maintain adequate inventory for future service support.”
• According to the company, the employees working at the PV unit, which is part of the company's Business Solutions (BS) division, will be offered transition support and severance packages commensurate with their tenure with the company.
• In its latest financial results, LG reported a slight increase in revenue for the BS division despite the?“sluggish performance” of its solar module business.

Philippines’ SPNEC aiming to raise funds to develop 10GW of solar

• Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corporation (SPNEC) is looking to raise capital from a stock rights offering (SRO) and private placements with institutional investors to support the development of 10GW of solar PV.
• The recently listed subsidiary of PV project developer Solar Philippines, SPNEC?said it plans to file the SRO in Q2 2022 to raise at least PHP10 billion (US$195 million).
• “This is only a small percent of project cost, but we believe its a large percent of the value, with development being the bottleneck for the energy transition of the Philippines,” said Solar Philippines founder Leandro Leviste.
• The announcement comes after SPNEC?made its debut on the?Philippine Stock Exchange in December.
• The company has also approved the acquisition of land for its solar developments, to be funded from proceeds of the SRO and its initial public offering.
• SPNEC said its Philippine PV developments would be supported by a potential asset-for-share swap with Solar Philippines, which has a portfolio of over 20 solar project companies, including more than 10GW under development.
• Other announcements in the Philippine solar sector last year saw Blueleaf Energy, a portfolio company of Macquarie’s Green Investment Group,?reveal plans ?to bring forward 1,250MW of PV through a partnership with local player SunAsia, while independent power producer Nexif Energy secured a?power supply agreement ?for a 75MWp plant in the country.

Source: https://www.pv-tech.org/philippines-spnec-aiming-to-raise-funds-to-develop-10gw-of-solar/

?Thailand's CK Power plans 2.8 GW of fresh renewables by 2024

• Thai power producer and distributor CK Power PCL (BKK:CKP) plans to more than double in size over the next three years by adding some 2.8 GW of renewable electricity generating capacity.
• Managing director Thanawat Trivisvavet stated that the company intends to build six power plants in Thailand and the region to hit 4.8 GW of cumulative capacity by 2024.
• “All of our new installed capacity will be based on renewables, including solar power, hydro power and wind power,” he said, adding that CK Power aims to create three new renewable energy ventures in two countries outside of Thailand.
• Trivisvavet believes that within five years, the company’s solar power capacity will be increased more than ten-fold to 300 MW, while wind farms will reach 700 MW. This means that at that point, some 95% of the company’s total electricity generating capacity will be based on renewable sources.
• According to the director, CK Power is currently well-positioned for the future when it comes to financials and has a solid balance sheet with steady cash flows from long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs).

Source: https://renewablesnow.com/news/thailands-ck-power-plans-28-gw-of-fresh-renewables-by-2024-774357/

?03 AMER

Accumulated PV Capacity in Brazil reached 13.5 GW

• According to ABSolar, the total PV capacity installed in Brazil reached 13.5 GW by Jan 2022, of which 4,635 MW are Centralized Generation (CG) and 8,885 MW are Distributed Generation (DG). Furthermore, 44.4% of the Distributed Generation are residential.
• In the first month of 2022, Brazil added 116 MW of solar PV, among which 76.6 MW are DG and 39.4 MW are CG.

?Brazil imported 9.7 GW of photovoltaic modules in 2021, with Trina Solar in the lead

• The volume of photovoltaic modules demanded by the Brazilian market in 2021 to meet the expansion of solar generation exceeded 9.7 GW.?This volume represented a share of 5.6% of the world demand for photovoltaic modules in 2021, which was 172.6 GW.?In comparison, in 2017 this share represented 0.9%.?The figure also represents a growth of more than 100% in relation to imported modules in 2020.
• Among the 73 brands of photovoltaic modules present on the market in 2021, the top 10 brands by volume represented 81% of the total imported, according to data from the SRI and Greener, collected until November 2021. Four brands sold volumes greater than 1 GW : Trina, Canadian, LONGi and Risen sold 1,490 MW, 1,277 MW, 1,196 MW and 1,024 MW, respectively.?
• Investors showed expressive growth in the volume received until November 2021, with an increase of 130% compared to the same period of the previous year (November 2020): 8.99 GW, compared to 4.95 GW, remained above 2 GW per quarter.
• Growatt led the market for smaller inverters, up to 9.9 kW, importing to Brazil the equivalent of 636 MW in this category.?It was also the leader among investors with 10.0 kW and 49.9 kW of capacity, importing 310 MW.?In both categories, the top 10 companies in imported volume represent 76% of the entire market.
• Among the large investors, with more than 50 kW, two companies exceeded 1 GW in the year, Sungrow and Huawei imported to Brazil, respectively, the equivalent of 1,576 MW and 1,203 MW of equipment.?In this segment, the market is more concentrated and the top 10 brands in volume represent 90% of the total imported.

Utility-scale energy storage in US tripled in 2021 while growth of other clean energy stalled

• Utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) installations in the US grew 196% to 2.6GW in 2021 but overall clean power installations fell 3%, according to the latest annual figures from the trade body American Clean Power Association (ACP).?
• Measured in energy, utility-scale BESS capacity quadrupled to 10.8 GWh over the course of the year. It now accounts for 2% of the country’s total clean power capacity of 200GW, about double 2020’s proportion.
• Overall, ACP data shows the year and particularly fourth quarter may be seen as disappointing for the clean power sector’s progress with BESS outperforming the other technologies by some distance. Annual clean power installations fell 3% to 27.7GW and Q4 was down 34%, to 10.5GW.?
• Some 11.4GW of capacity expected to come online in 2021 had completion dates pushed back beyond the year. The main cause of this was wind, for which installations fell 25% while solar increased 19%.?
• Total operating hybrid capacity (defined as a combination of at least two types of clean power together) more than doubled last year to 8.7GW. Of this, 96% is storage paired with a renewable power source – solar-plus-storage the largest at 68% – with only the 4% that is solar-plus-wind not involving storage.?
• The leading states for clean power capacity are Texas with 45.1GW, California with 22.9GW followed by Iowa with 12.3GW. Texas and California also rank number one and two for clean power capacity pipeline with 11.5GW and 3.4GW respectively, while Wyoming is third with 3GW.?

Source: https://www.energy-storage.news/utility-scale-energy-storage-in-us-tripled-in-2021-while-growth-of-other-clean-energy-stalled/

??Missing: Five to ten gigawatts of utility scale solar in 2022

• At the end of January, Roth Capital suggested that 5-10GW of utility scale solar power destined for the United States might not get installed in 2022 due to module supply challenges.
• The analyst suggests that the world’s largest solar panel manufacturers – Jinko, LONGi, and Trina – may be unable to deliver their solar panels to the United States due to import restrictions. These companies represent 40-50% of all solar panels delivered to the country.
• Roth points out that?100MW of LONGi solar panels were released from Customs and Border Protection ?(CBP) for distribution into the United States only three days ago, on February 18th. The analyst suggests this is a positive development, but cautions that it is not a permanent solution.
• This raises questions about who will supply the solar panels to meet the market demand, and whether or not Tier 2 module manufacturers should be considered. The concern is if these manufacturers would meet the bankability standards that investors require.
• Other Tier 1 module manufacturers may potentially be available to supply the product, but they might not yet be positioned to deliver modules to the US market. For instance, Jollywood – the world’s leading TOPCon manufacturer – has put off plans to deliver US products from a new factory.
• Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s Jenny Chase notes there are 38GW/year of module manufacturing, and 29GW/year of crystalline silicon cell capacity located in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam that could serve the US market. Of course, nearly all wafers are manufactured in China, and most of the aforementioned manufacturing capacity for modules and cells are owned by Chinese firms.

New Jersey installed nearly 4GW of solar in 2021, why is there cause for concern?

• New Jersey added 3.8GW of new solar capacity in 2021, as outlined in the newest edition of DG+’s?New Jersey Solar Market Report, ?yet the report also outlines that this high-water mark might not be a lasting one, and that the state’s market could take a downturn soon.
• In Q4 2021,?the report outlines that commercial sector installation capacity dwarfed residential installation capacity by a ratio of 3 to 1, with solar development especially concentrated in Public Service Enterprise Group territory.
• The study firstly cites?the state’s A3352 , signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy on November 9, which requires all new warehouses in the state to be built as solar-ready buildings. The law defines a warehouse as any building 100,000 square feet or larger primarily is used to store goods for resale, and now new warehouses built on or after July 1, 2022 will need to be optimized for solar.
• The report also points to this past fall’s decision by state regulators to transition the two-year-old pilot community solar program to permanent status. Regulators awarded 78 MW across 45 projects during the pilot program’s first year, exceeding a 75 MW goal. While the pilot required that at least 40% of all approved projects reserve at least 51% of their capacity for low- and middle-income households, all of the approved renewable energy projects met that goal.
• Year two ?of the pilot program doubled the amount of capacity, with the 150 MW available. It carried the same carve-out for low- and middle-income customers. The program was modified as regulators looked to reduce time and costs for developers to enroll customers.

Source: https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2022/02/24/new-jersey-installed-nearly-4gw-of-solar-in-2021-why-is-there-cause-for-concern/

?Colombia extends again the term for signing the contracts of the last auction

• On October 26, 2021, the?Long-Term Energy Contracting Auction –SCLPE 2021– was held, convened by the Ministry of Mines and Energy ?through Resolution MME 4 0179 of 2021. 796.3 photovoltaic MW were awarded to $41.1/MWh, almost double that of 2019.
• The Ministry extended the deadline for signing the contracts derived from the auction mechanism by means of an Informative Circular of December 20, 2021 and, therefore, for the issuance of payment and compliance guarantees, until February 18.
• According to the Ministry, "some awarded agents" have requested an extension of the term for the signing of contracts and constitution of guarantees, "since the process they carry out before the financial entities can be extended even more in time, taking into account the type of required guarantee and some particular situations of each of the companies”.
• Therefore, the Ministry of Mines and Energy informs all those awarded the auction, including its complementary mechanism, the ASIC as auctioneer and the interested parties in general that the deadline for delivering the contracts will be March 18, 2022.

Ecuador now seeks investors in Colombia for the 500 MW renewable

• Last December,??the Government of Ecuador began the bidding process for three electricity generation and transmission projects ?for 1,861 million dollars, which includes 500 MW of non-conventional renewable energies, a 400 MW Natural Gas Combined Cycle block and the Northeast transmission that will supply the Ecuadorian oil system.
• Specifically, in the 120 MW block corresponding to photovoltaic energy, projects with a minimum required power of 3 MW and a maximum of 60 MW are sought, and with a concession term of 25 years.?Here ?you can access the details of this call for public selection processes.
• In?January, 12 companies had paid for the rights to participate in the renewable auction in the 500 MW NCRE Block ?, five from Ecuador, two from France and from Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Mexico and Spain, one for each country.
• The promotion of the projects continues, they point out from Bodero, since "it is not yet known if the expressions of interest cover the entire block because it should be in the stage of presenting offers" and it hopes to continue shortly with other promotions in the agencies of economic cooperation between Peru and Mexico until March 15.
• In accordance with the schedule, modified on February 23, 2022, the submission of bids is from Monday, May 2, 2022, Friday to October 28, 2022. From this QR code you can access the established schedule:

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