Our view on the latest developments in PV.
The Emirate of Dubai set a new world record for the cost of solar power on May 1, 2016 with the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) receiving bids for the 800 MW Sheikh Maktoum Solar Park Phase III as low as 3.00 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). This not only marks the lowest cost ever for solar power, but also easily beats all available fossil-fuel options in Dubai on cost.
The global PV market is showing no signs of slowing down, but it is important to know how this demand is shifting among the markets around the world and the scale of opportunity in each region.
Apricum Project Manager Martin Mitscher was in Hamburg to attend the EU PVSEC conference from September 14–18, 2015.
On November 20, 2014, ten bids for the 100 MW PV IPP tender issued by Dubai’s state utility DEWA were opened. The results provoked awe throughout the Gulf region’s power community and will set the standards for future tenders.
Many regions in the world today cannot be sufficiently supplied by large, central power plants and therefore depend on distributed power generation. For many years, this market has been mainly served by fossil fuel-powered gensets.
Satellite PV module manufacturing, the assembly of modules in factories in end markets around the globe rather than in highly centralized and vertically integrated facilities, is a growing trend in the PV industry.
Next to the utility segment, the commercial/residential rooftop segment of the Brazilian PV market offers good market potential, driven by very favorable conditions for self-consumption of generated power.
The PV industry has bounced back from a tough few years of drastic consolidation driven by overcapacity and savage price competition. The PV market is now global and diversified, and is experiencing strong and consistent growth resulting in companies across the PV value chain becoming profitable again.
The Turkish solar market is set to flourish. Attractive opportunities for investors and self-consumption are driving a boom in the license-free segment, and an overwhelming 8.9 GW of applications were received for the 600 MW of tendered capacity last year in the licensed segment.
We spoke to Nikolai Dobrott about his thoughts on the much-discussed topic of when, by whom, and how the next steps in the development of Saudi Arabia’s solar market will unfold.
Plans to diversify Brazil’s hydro-dominated electricity market continue to move ahead, most recently boosted by the just announced solar tendering rounds. With a clear need for additional power generation capacity (~63 GW by 2022) to satisfy a growing population and economy, opportunities are opening up in Brazil’s expanding solar utility-scale and distributed generation segments.
With negligible fossil energy reserves, Jordan is heavily dependent on foreign energy imports. Solar and wind power generation is well-placed to support Jordan’s goals to increase energy independence and reduced energy spending.