Weekly Market Update

01 EMEA

France lowers grid fee for solar up to 500 kW

• French Minister for Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili announced on March 17 a plan to reduce the grid fee for renewable energy sources, heat pumps and EV charging stations.
• The measure is part of the French government's Climate and Resilience Law Climate intended to help households and businesses cope with the current energy crisis.
• Over the next days, an ad-hoc decree is to be published and the measure is expected to include all PV systems not exceeding 500 kW in size, which are already being supported through?feed-in tariffs. Currently, PV system owners are paying 60% of the grid fee to connect their installations and, with the new measure, they will pay only 40%.
• Similarly, connection costs will be reduced for electric charging stations and for the installation of heat pumps, which will likely only pay 20% of the grid fee.
• “The connection grid fee can be a brake on the deployment of certain small renewable electricity production projects as well as the installation of heat pumps, the development of which is nevertheless an essential issue in our energy policy,” said Pompili. “Reducing connection costs will make it possible to speed up their installations, especially in rural areas. This is a concrete step forward in advancing the country's energy transition.”

Source: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/03/18/france-lowers-grid-fee-for-solar-up-to-500-kw-heat-pumps/

France provides incentives to landscape-integrated BIPV

• France's Ministry of Ecological Transition introduced, in October, a new?package of measures to support PV systems of up to 500kW?which included a feed-in tariff bonus for solar tile-based building-integrated PV (BIPV) systems that comply with a series of landscape integration requirements.
• This week, the ministry announced the first four solar products that were eligible for the incentive scheme: A solar tile developed by Rivesaltes-based?Sunstyle; two BIPV products manufactured by Grossouvre-based Edilians; and a tile produced by Alsace-based?Systovi.
• The French authorities specified that?the use of these products will not be sufficient to secure the premium and that the characteristics of each project will also have to be evaluated.
• According to the recent provisions introduced by the French government, projects that are eligible for the scheme must ensure a?roof sealing function and the roof must have an inclination of between 10 and 75 degrees. Furthermore, the BIPV system will have to be approved by France's?Centre Scientifique et Technique du Batiment CSTB, a public establishment aimed to guarantee the quality and safety of buildings.
• Moreover, the rules establish that a BIPV system may not cover more than 80% of the roof surface.

Czechia allocates $177m for solar rebates

• Czechia's?Ministry of Industry and Trade?has announced it has earmarked CZK4 billion ($177.1 million) to support PV projects not exceeding 1MW in size, through rebates.
• The funds were taken from the country's National Recovery Plan in an effort to reduce energy dependence on Russia, the government said in a statement.
• A call to select eligible projects will be launched on March 22 and applications may be sent by June 30. Solar-plus-storage projects will also be entitled to participate.
• The rebate for a solar installation will not exceed 35% and that for a storage system may not be higher than 50%.
• In 2021, the Czech authorities allocated?CZK4.5 billion for the rebate scheme. In December, however, the State Environmental Fund of Czechia postponed the deadline to submit applications. ”The deadline for projects up to 1MWp has been extended because, currently, the allocation was not filled, meaning the interest for ground-mounted projects up to 1MWp was lower than the ministry expected,”

Italy begins loosening permits for large scale renewables

• Italy's Council of Ministers authorized six wind power projects with a combined capacity of 418MW last week, in an effort to streamline large-scale renewable energy projects and reduce reliance on gas imports in the coming years.
• The authorization process for the six projects has stalled in recent years and the move from the Italian government is in response to a?policy change for renewable energy permits.
• The Italian cabinet added it took a similar measure on Feb. 18, when the authorizations for two more wind projects totaling 65MW were also streamlined. “From the end of 2021, utility scale renewable energy projects with an aggregate capacity of 1.4 GW were unlocked,” it said in a press release.
• At the end of November 2021, Italian high-voltage grid operator, Terna, and Enel Distribuzione, responsible for the low and middle-voltage network, agreed to review grid-connection requests for PV projects with a combined capacity of 90 and 20GW, respectively, which shows the huge interest between investors.
• According to the Italian solar association Italia Solare, however, this impressive pipeline is currently difficult to unlock, as Italy's regulatory framework represents a barrier that makes project development and construction very difficult, if not impossible in some cases.

Source: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/03/14/italy-begins-loosening-permits-for-large-scale-renewables/

Sweden forecast to triple solar generation by 2024

• Sweden’s solar output is set to triple over the next two years to 3TWh and, with electricity production from both wind and solar expected to increase, the Scandinavian country is set to export roughly 41TWh by 2024.??
• The Swedish Energy Agency’s (SEA)?Short-Term Forecast?report showed that energy use in the country is expected to increase from 498TWh in 2020 to 523TWh in 2024.
• Sweden has a well establish wind power industry that the report predicts will increase its generation by 19TWh to 47TWh. Its nascent solar sector, however, is expected to treble its output in the next two years to 3TWh from just over 1TWh today.
• Sweden is a “global leader” in decarbonisation, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), and has pledged to cut GHG emission by 59% by 2030 compared with 2005 levels.
• It was also the first country in the world to introduce carbon pricing and currently has the highest carbon price in the world, which the IEA said has helped to drive decarbonisation.
• It currently gets the vast majority of its power from hydropower (40%), nuclear (35%) and wind (17%) but its solar sector has been growing steadily.
• In 2020, it added 400MW of solar PV, up from 287MW the previous year, and in mid-2021 it crossed the 1GW of connected solar capacity milestone.

Source: https://www.pv-tech.org/sweden-forecast-to-triple-solar-generation-by-2024/

Germany: Initiative calls for bidirectional charging of electric cars to make the energy system more flexible

• Bidirectional charging is a promising decentralized approach in which the batteries of the electric vehicles are used for both charging and discharging.?They are therefore available as flexible storage capacities for the grid and could compensate for fluctuations in renewable generation.?Especially with a view to the goal of the federal government to bring at least 15 million fully electric cars on German roads by 2030, there is immense potential for this.?
• The technology is at an advanced stage of development.?The “Bidirectional Charging Initiative” now wants to close this gap.?The regulatory framework should be aligned in such a way that the ecological and economic potential of the technology can be fully exploited – both for companies and consumers.
• The Mobility House, MVV and Elli are among the co-initiators of the “Initiative Bidirectionales Laden”, which was founded last autumn and has 17 members.?It is an association of companies in the automotive, energy and charging infrastructure sectors, which are supported by a car park company, a software specialist and two consulting firms.

Poland: New subsidies for prosumers from My Electricity in April

• The government plenipotentiary for renewable energy confirmed that the new edition of the My Electricity program will be launched next month. However, although the call for applications for subsidies is to start in the coming weeks, the prosumer market still does not know the key principles of the program or the conditions under which subsidies will be accepted.
• The governmental plenipotentiary for renewable energy sources confirmed that the new edition of the My Electricity program will not only be limited to financing investments in home photovoltaic installations, but it will also be possible to obtain subsidies for devices to increase the level of self-consumption of energy produced by prosumers.
• Energy storage technologies will be of key importance, allowing the storage of surplus energy produced in renewable energy installations and their return to the system if it is necessary to balance it.
• The subsidy only for photovoltaics in the fourth edition of My Electricity should be at a similar level as in the previous edition of the program (the maximum subsidy was PLN 3,000, and the co-financing could cover an installation with a capacity of 2-10 kW) , prosumers can expect more funding if, in addition to photovoltaics, they decide to install additional devices.
• However, no more detailed rules for co-financing have been provided so far, which makes it difficult to prepare the prosumer market and potential beneficiaries for Moje Pr?d 4.0.

Source: https://gramwzielone.pl/energia-sloneczna/107533/nowe-dotacje-dla-prosumentow-z-mojego-pradu-juz-w-kwietniu

Spain will allocate 2,900 million to help the industry to face the energy crisis

• The regime notified by Spain, with a total estimated budget of €2.9 billion, will cover part of the increase in electricity prices derived from the impact of carbon prices on electricity generation costs assumed between 2021 and 2030.?The measure The support scheme is intended to reduce the risk of 'carbon leakage', i.e. companies shifting their production to?non-EU countries with less stringent climate policies, thereby generating less economic activity in the EU and there is no global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
• Compensation will be granted to eligible companies through partial reimbursement of indirect emission costs incurred in the previous year and a final payment to be made in 2031.?The maximum amount of aid will generally be equal to 75% of the costs of indirect emissions incurred?.?However, in some cases, the maximum aid amount may be higher in order to limit the remaining costs of indirect emissions to 1.5% of the company's gross value added.?The aid amount is calculated on the basis of reference values for efficient electricity consumption, which ensure that beneficiaries are encouraged to save energy.
• To be eligible for compensation,?companies will have to follow certain energy audit recommendations?, cover at least 30% of their electricity consumption from non-carbon sources (via on-site renewable power generation facilities, purchase of energy without carbon emissions or guarantees of origin),?or invest at least 50% of the aid amount in projects that lead to substantial reductions in greenhouse?gas emissions from its facilities.?Beneficiaries must fulfill one of these obligations within a period of three years from the granting of the aid.

Source: https://www.eleconomista.es/energia/noticias/11669674/03/22/Espana-destinara-2900-millones-para-ayudar-a-la-industria-a-afrontar-la-crisis-energetica.html

02 APAC

Saudi Arabia Launches New Initiative To Boost RE Projects

• Saudi Arabia launches a new initiative to boost renewable energy projects to cut back its crude oil used as per the Industry and Mineral Resources Ministry. The Ministry would also give tax exemptions and other incentives to the companies which will produce renewable energy.
• The initiative will boost the capabilities of companies to increase the production of power and support the Vision 2030 of the kingdom to generate 50% of electricity from renewable energy sources.
• Saudi Arabia also plans to issue fresh tenders to generate 15,000 MWs capacity of electricity with the renewable energy projects in 2022 and 2023 said Energy Minister Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman of the kingdom.
• Recently, ACWA Power and the Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) to develop the 700 MW Ar Rass solar photovoltaic independent power plant (IPP) in Saudi Arabia’s Al Qassim province.

India Signs Agreement to Build 100 MW Solar Plant in Sri Lanka

• India and Sri Lanka have signed an agreement for developing a 100 megawatt solar power plant in the island nation’s eastern port district of Trincomalee, as part of the efforts to strengthen bilateral economic partnership, including through cooperation in the renewable energy sector.
• The Joint Venture and Shareholders’ Agreement (JVSHA) for the Trincomalee Power Company Limited (TPCL) a joint venture between National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited from India and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) for developing the 100 megawatt solar power plant at Sampur has been signed, the Indian mission said in a statement.
• The cooperation with Sri Lanka in this domain will only become stronger with the implementation of the USD 100 million Line of Credit offered by India to Sri Lanka for development of solar power projects.

Ministry of Power Recommends Uniform Slab of 5% GST on all Renewable Energy Components

• The Ministry of Power (MoP) informed that it would be writing to the Department of Revenue recommending a uniform slab of 5% goods and services tax (GST) on all renewable energy components nationwide.
• The GST council, in September 2021, announced the GST increase for 'specified renewable energy parts,' from 5% to 12%, which came into effect the following month. With the increase in GST from 5% to 12% on renewable energy equipment, at the project level, the new effective rate of GST on wind and solar power comes to around 13.8%.
• The increase in the GST rate would affect the economic feasibility of renewable energy projects and will have a detrimental effect on the underconstruction and upcoming projects.
• For years, the solar industry has been asking for clarity around the GST rates. Bringing uniformity to renewable energy components would be a long-awaited relief for the industry.

India’s PV module production capacity could hit 36GW by 2023

• India’s solar cell and module production capacity is expected to rise in the years ahead.
• India’s solar module production capacity will almost double to 36GW in two years, from 18GW as of December 2021.?Cell production capacity?will rise to 18GW by the end of 2023 from just 4GW at present, according to?JMK Research?analysts.
• The analysts estimated the two-year capacity additions based on the announcements of industry leaders and new entrants exploring the market. The Indian government’s?production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for solar PV manufacturing?is a major catalyst for the whole Indian solar industry, according to JMK Research analysts.

Andhra Pradesh high court orders utilities to honour PPA contracts in key ruling for Indian renewables

• In a significant ruling for the Indian renewables market, a high court in the state of Andhra Pradesh has ruled that state distribution utilities (Discoms) must pay renewable companies the terms they agreed to when they signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) within six weeks (around US$1.4 billion). The high court ruling is a boon for both ReNew Power and Azure Power, who will both received their contracted PPA rates.
• Reneging of PPA contracts from Discoms has been an issue for some time in India.
• But the order doesn’t deal with the wider problem of Discom finances, noted Rustagi, which he said was “the root cause for states seeking to renegotiate PPAs and delaying payments”.
• Rustagi said other states have been delaying payments to power producers for more than a year and that the ruling could “lay down a definitive marker”.

03 AMER

Close to 40% of installed solar and wind capacity in Brazil is sold as PPAs on the free market

• In Brazil, there are two commercial environments in the electricity contracting market: the Regulated Contracting Environment (ACR) and the Free Contracting Environment (ACL).?In the first case, distributors buy energy through auctions and the price is determined by the National Electricity Agency (Aneel).?In the Ambiente de Contrata??o Livre (ACL), consumers negotiate electricity purchase conditions directly with generators or trading companies.
• In this context, the financial advisory and strategic consulting company in renewable energies CELA Clean Energy Latin America has just published a study that maps the wind and solar PPAs in the free market, and has reached the conclusion that they grew by 37% between January 2021 and February 2022.
• The study is based on interviews and questionnaires carried out by the largest renewable energy generation companies in the country, and provides information and analysis on 91 PPAs already signed in the free market for wind and solar photovoltaic, equivalent to an average of 2.6 GW hired, a segment that has shown strong growth and maturity in the last 4 years.
• 34 of the contracts were for wind power, and 57 for solar power.?In total, they add up to an installed capacity of 10.7 GW, which corresponds to 41% of the total capacity of Brazil, of 26.1 GW.
• To contextualize, the installed capacity mapped by the study with contracts signed in the ACL corresponds to about 40% of the operational installed capacity of wind and solar sources in Brazil today, added together.

EnergySage solar market report finds that as prices rise, customer choice expands

• EnergySage released its fourteenth semi-annual?Solar Marketplace Intel Report, which covers pricing, equipment, and consumer preference trends in the US residential solar and energy storage industries.
• For the first time since 2014 when EnergySage began tracking prices, the quoted price of solar increased. The minor (0.4%) increase from $2.67/W to $2.68/W between the first and second halves of 2021 is though to likely be due to the effects of supply chain constraints and shortages.
• The installed cost of energy storage quoted on EnergySage increased 5% between the first and second halves of 2021 to $1,289 per kWh stored. Most storage shoppers receive a quote for a single battery with either 10 or 13kWh of storage capacity, with the median installed cost of a battery quote on EnergySage at $13,000 in the second half of the year.
• Of the 22 different battery brands quoted at least once on EnergySage in the second half of the year, Enphase, LG Energy Solution and Tesla were the three most quoted options. Tesla remains the lowest cost option on a $/kWh stored basis. However, a half dozen other brands of batteries were quoted below the $1,000 per kWh stored threshold in the second half of 2021, albeit at a lower quote volume: Homegrid Energy, BYD Battery Box, Growatt, Tigo Energy, Fortress Power, and Q CELLS.

Virginia regulators approve nearly 1,000 MW of new solar + storage projects

• The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) approved on Tuesday a significant expansion of new solar and energy storage projects for Dominion Energy Virginia customers. Once in operation, the projects will provide nearly 1,000 megawatts of carbon-free electricity, enough to power about 250,000 Virginia homes at peak output.
• The approved expansion includes 15 Dominion Energy Virginia projects, as well as PPAs with 24 other projects owned by third-party developers. The projects will help advance Dominion Energy’s path to net zero greenhouse gas emissions and meet the future energy needs of its customers.
• “This is another significant milestone in Virginia’s transition to energy independence,” said Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia. “These projects will support thousands of good jobs and hundreds of millions in economic activity in communities across Virginia. This is a positive step forward for our customers, the environment and Virginia’s economy.”
• Construction of the 15 Dominion Energy Virginia projects is expected to generate more than $880 million in economic benefits across Virginia and will support nearly 4,200 jobs. The projects are expected to be completed in 2022 and 2023 and will add approximately $1.13 to the typical residential customers’ monthly bill.

Solar roofs for Mipymes of the CDMX

• The Secretariat of Economic Development (SEDECO) signed a collaboration agreement with the fund specialized in financing the acquisition of solar panels?"BanVerde?", with the aim of offering new financing alternatives attached to the Institutional Action for the Promotion of Transition and Energy Sustainability in MSMEs in Mexico City.
• The agreement establishes that when the operating rules of the Institutional Action for the Promotion of Energy Transition and Sustainability in MSMEs are published, BanVerde will appear as one of the options to choose to install photovoltaic systems, in the form of energy purchase and sale, which It will have the following characteristics:
• ①Initial payment without cost
• ②Contract duration between 6 to 15 years, at the end the client owns the system
• ③Fixed prices, including maintenance and insurance for external damages
• ④Financing ranges from 50 thousand to 500 thousand pesos for the industrial sector and up to 2 million pesos for the commercial sector