WEEKLY REVIEW

PV Market News This Week:

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1. France awards 948MW ground-mounted solar PV in latest auction

The French Ministry of Solidarity and Ecological Transition has awarded 948MW of ground-mounted solar PV capacity in its latest auction.

The sixth PPE2 (Programmation Pluriannuelle de l'Energie) tender for ground-mounted capacity ended up being slightly oversubscribed as the French government tendered for 925MW of PV capacity.

In total, 120 projects across France were awarded bidding capacity with an average price of €79.28/MWh (US$83.3/MWh). The average price is over €2 lower than the previous ground-mounted tender, when the average tariff of the fifth round sat at €81.9/MWh. For the second tender in a row, average tariff price decreased.

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2. AU$400 million renewables hub with six solar PV plants proposed for the Northern Territory, Australia

The Northern Territory government in Australia has proposed developing an AU$400 million (US$259 million) renewable energy hub featuring six solar PV power plants in the region.

Revealed by the Territory's deputy chief minister for renewables, Gerard Maley, yesterday (13 November), public feedback is being sought on the Darwin Renewable Energy Hub.

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3. Azerbaijan to build 6GW of renewable energy by 2030

Azerbaijan plans to build 6GW of solar PV, wind and hydropower capacity by 2030.

The announcement was made by the country's president, Ilham Aliyev, during the opening ceremony of the Conference of the Parties 29 (COP29) summit, held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

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4. Lithuania to block Chinese inverters with cybersecurity legislation

Lithuanian lawmakers have adopted legislation designed to limit the ability of Chinese inverter manufacturers to remotely access the country's solar and wind power plants.

According to Lithuanian reports, 79 MPs voted in favour of the amendment to the Law on Electricity, which will impose greater security measures on electricity generation and information management systems to insulate them from the influence of “hostile countries”, as designated by the country's National Security Strategy.

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5. Australia's New South Wales government releases new planning framework for large-scale solar PV

The government of New South Wales, Australia, has released a new planning framework for large-scale renewable energy developments aiming to streamline planning decisions.

The newly released Renewable Energy Planning Framework, revealed yesterday (12 November) by the state government, provides a suite of guidelines and tools to bolster efforts to scale the state's clean energy uptake.

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6. Iberdrola Australia pens PPA with 13 regional councils in New South Wales

Iberdrola Australia, a sub-division of utility giant Iberdrola, has secured power purchase agreements (PPAs) with 13 regional councils in New South Wales that will see part of the energy sourced from a large-scale solar PV power plant.

Under the terms of the PPA, Iberdrola Australia will supply the 13 councils with over 390GWh of renewable energy sourced from the 245MW Avonlie solar PV project and Iberdrola's Capital and Bodangora wind farms.

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7. Ember calls for greater policy support, with solar on track to meet 2030 targets

The world's exponential growth in solar capacity additions is a cause for optimism, but greater policy support will be needed if the world is to meet its 2030 renewable energy targets.

These are the conclusions of the latest report from think tank Ember Climate, 'In 12 months the renewables market has moved but governments have not', published today. The report assesses the climate commitments made by a number of national governments, compared to the goal of tripling global installed renewable capacity by 2030, agreed upon at last year's COP28 climate conference.

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8. India to impose preliminary antidumping rates on solar glass imports

The Indian Department of Commerce has imposed preliminary antidumping measures on selected solar glass producers exporting products from China and Vietnam.

In its preliminary findings issued last week, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies found that seven glass producers in China and one in Vietnam have shipped products to India which have "injured" the domestic solar glass production industry.

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9. IRENA urges fresh impetus on renewables in 'crunch' COP29 summit

Despite record installations of renewables generally and solar PV specifically in 2023, the global energy transition remains "off track" and geographically imbalanced.

That is the headline conclusion of a report published today by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) as the COP29 climate change conference gets underway in Baku, Azerbaijan.

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10. India has potential to lead solar PV exports to US, says IEEFA/JMK Research

India has the potential to replace Southeast Asian countries as the leading solar PV exporter to the US, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research & Analytics.

Between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, India increased its import of solar modules 23-fold, primarily to the US. In FY2024 alone, Indian solar manufacturers exported nearly US$2 billion worth of modules.

11. South Africa's tax authority opens solar systems tender

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has opened a tender for the engineering, design and installation of solar panel systems at its offices across the country.

The tender documents show that the company, overseeing the national tax system and customs services, plans to form a panel of contractors who will be called upon as needed to install the solar systems.

The panelists will be divided into three regions across South Africa. The first group will cover Gauteng; the second will cover the Eastern Cape, Free State, Northern Cape, and Western Cape; and the third will cover KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and the Northwest. Bidders may submit proposals for one or more regions.