FOTOTHERM

Solar park in Ontario. Source: BluEarth  Renewables (www.bluearthrenewables.com) Royal Bank of Canada (TSE:RY-G), or RBC, has signed a renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) that backs the construction of a couple of solar plants in southeast Alberta. Under the terms of the contract, RBC and its partner Bullfrog Power, owned by Spark Power Group Inc, will each buy 31,500 MWh of solar power annually. Scott Foster, global head of corporate real estate at RBC, said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg that RBC is now the first Canadian lender to sign a long-term PPA for renewable energy. The two solar parks that will generate the electricity are expected to be finalised in April 2021, when they will have the combined capacity to produce 80,000 MWh per year. RBC aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its operations by 70% and rely solely on renewable and non-emitting electricity by 2025. ( http://www.fototherm.com/ ) Source:  https://renewablesnow.com/news/rbc-bu...

Sasol plans to power its operations in the municipalities of Secunda and Sasolburg with two 10 MW solar projects. The successful bidders with sell power to the factories under power purchase agreements. South Africa-based chemicals producer Sasol has kicked off a  request for proposals (RFP)  process to seek independent power producers for two PV plants that will power its operations in Secunda, Mpumalanga province, and Sasolburg, Free State province. Interested independent power producers have until Oct. 2 to submit their proposals. “We are excited to launch the RFP, which forms part of our broader greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction aspiration and moves us forward on our journey to achieving our target of a 10% GHG emission reduction by 2030,” said the company’s chief sustainability officer, Hermann Wenhold. The winning IPPs will own and operate the plants. They will sell power to Sasol under long-term PPAs. In May, Sasol began to seek partners to potentially deploy rene...

Spanish renewables company Acciona has commissioned Spain’s first floating installation. Plus, Utility EDP has finalized the first, 1 MW phase of a 4 MW project at the Alqueva water reservoir in southern Portugal. Acciona has completed Spain’s first floating solar installation. Image: Acciona Acciona has commissioned Spain’s first grid-connected floating solar plant, in the southern region of Extremadura. The renewables company received authorization for the installation in February and completed commissioning on Monday. The 1.1 MW array is on the southern shore of the Sierra Brava reservoir in the municipality of Zorita, in the province of Cáceres, and spans ​​12,000m 2  – 0.07% of the 1,650ha reservoir. The pilot project features 3,000 solar modules of various types, orientation and inclination across five floating structures and will assess the performance and operations and maintenance costs associated with the different set-ups. Acciona said the plant was conceived “as a techn...

The Polish PV market is booming. Poland even turned out to be a solar surprise in 2019 and ranked 5th among the EU countries with the largest PV capacities that were connected to the grid in 2019 The positive development continues. According to PSE data and as of 1/05/2020, the installed capacity from solar farms was 1832.7 MW. This means that 137.35 MW arrived in April and 4.58 MW was installed daily. This is an increase of 181.42 percent year on year. However, throughout April 2020, the increase in photovoltaic plant capacity was 8.1 percent compared to March 2020. PSE data includes all PV installations reported to distribution companies, connected to both medium and low voltage networks. Act on renewable energy sources or the development of photovoltaics in Poland in 2019, the entry into force of the amendment to the Act on renewable energy sources, which introduced a number of significant changes in the support system for electricity generated from PV installations, pro...