World:
¶ Japan’s solar installations are expected to peak this year somewhere between 13.2 GW and 14.3 GW, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Japan installed 7.1 GW of solar in 2013, 10.3 GW in 2014, and as much as 12.3 GW in 2015. However, BNEF is predicting a drop in installations for 2017. [CleanTechnica]
Rooftop solar installation in Japan. Photo by CoCreatr (some rights reserved)
¶ SkyPower has signed four power purchase agreements with the Indian state of Telangana to build and operate a total of 200 MW of solar energy projects. The deals bring the total number of solar projects agreed by the company in India to 400 MW, with the other 200 MW planned for the state of Madhya Pradesh. [reNews]
¶ Scotrenewables Tidal Power has completed the deployment of its advanced modular anchoring system at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, Scotland. The deployment is part of preparations for the installation of a 2-MW floating tidal turbine in a project for floating technologies. [Renewable Energy Magazine]
Scotrenewables deployment of advanced anchoring system
¶ Colville Lake, a Dene community of about 150, high in a corner of Canada’s Northwest Territories, has successfully tested a system of batteries and solar panels that should allow the community to run entirely on the sun’s energy – at least in the summer. The system supplements a new diesel generator. [Huffington Post Canada]
¶ South Australia is about to go coal-free, and by the end of the year it will be supplying half of its energy needs from wind and solar. Some people think these things are big steps into the future; others that they are the beginning of the end of the world as we know it. The Northern brown coal station will close on May 8. [Echonetdaily]
Coal and wind in South Australia
¶ Canada’s eventual decision over the fate of a 15-year-old proposal to build a deep underground repository for low and intermediate-level nuclear waste a mile from Lake Huron is being watched on both sides of the border. The decision was expected by March 1, but it is being put off – at least for now. [Toledo Blade]
US:
¶ Figures released by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association ahead of their scheduled US Solar Market Insight report, which is due out March 9, say the US solar PV industry installed a record 7,286 MW of solar PV in 2015. This was 29.5% of all new capacity, and beat out natural gas. [CleanTechnica]
New US solar installations by year. GTM graph.
¶ Bernie Sanders hasn’t proposed eliminating conventional oil and gas drilling or coal mining on private land, but he believes that fracking, is especially problematic. He wants to halt fracking not just on public land but on private land too. How would he actually do that? He has a list of six things that he could do to stop it. [Grist]
¶ Solar power has become the biggest growing energy source in New Hampshire. And in New Hampshire, the city of Franklin leads the way in this “green” growth. It has the first and biggest “solar garden” (array of panels) thus far. Franklin has been called, “The Solar Capital of New Hampshire.” [Laconia Citizen]
Workers install solar panels on the roof of a building in Franklin.
(Leigh Sharps / for the Citizen)
¶ Americana “big box” stores could host around 62.3 GW of rooftop solar PV capacity, enough to generate enough electricity to provide for the equivalent needs of roughly 7 million US households, according to a report. The stores have about 4.5 billion square feet of space that can be developed. [CleanTechnica]
¶ German PV system integrator Phoenix Solar AG today said its US subsidiary won a contract from Invenergy Solar Development LLC to design and build a 65-MW PV plant in Nevada. It will have polycrystalline modules on a single axis tracking system. Construction is set for the first quarter of 2016. [SeeNews Renewables]
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