Mining company RioTinto (RioTinto) has announced a plan to build a solar power station at a diamond mine in Canada's Northwest Territories.   The solar power plant will be equipped with more than 6,600 solar modules to provide 25% of the Diavik diamond mine's electricity. The plant will be equipped with double-sided components to generate electricity using light reflected from the snow that covers the mine for most of the year.   Construction of the solar farm will begin in the coming weeks and it will be fully operational in the first half of 2024. Rio Tinto did not provide the amount of electricity generated by the solar PV project, but said it would generate about 4.2GWh of electricity per year.   At present, the installed capacity of the wind-diesel hybrid facility at the mine reaches 55.4MW.   "Diavik has established itself as a leader in cold-climate renewable energy technology through its wind-diesel hybrid power facility and this important project demonstrates our determination to reduce our carbon footprint." "I am very pleased that we have significantly increased our renewable energy generation with the largest solar power plant in Northern Canada," said AngelaBigg, president and COO of Diavik Diamond Mine.   Rio Tinto also said the project has received $3.3 million from the Northwest Territories Government's Large Emitters Greenhouse Gas Reduction Investment Program and $600,000 from the Canadian Government's Clean Power Investment Tax Credit Program.   "This partnership demonstrates our commitment to promoting sustainable development while reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the Northwest Territories, and is a signal of how our economy continues to lead in these areas," said CarolineWawzonek, Minister of Finance for the Northwest Territories Government.   Last year, Rio Tinto subsidiary RichardBayMinerals signed a corporate power purchase agreement with renewable energy company Voltalia to purchase electricity from a 148MW solar farm in Limpopo province, South Africa.  

The New Zealand government has launched a NZ $2 billion ($1.22 billion) fund with BlackRock to step up investment in wind and solar power, battery storage and green hydrogen, pushing New Zealand to become one of the first countries in the world to be powered entirely by renewable energy.     New Zealand built hydropower decades ago, and now the proportion of renewable energy in the grid is about 82%, and the New Zealand government aims to achieve 100% renewable energy generation by 2030. New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said: "This fund is a game-changer for the clean technology sector and a pragmatic and practical step for the government to actually grow our economy and create jobs while accelerating climate action." Mr Hipkins said the fund would allow New Zealand companies to commercialise their technology intellectual property around the world.     Hipkins said it would take a total investment of about $26 billion to fully green the grid, and "working with and supporting industry to address the climate crisis is a natural thing to do." Blackrock CEO Larry Fink said, "The world is looking for collaborative models between the private and public sectors to ensure an orderly, just and equitable energy transition."   But David Seymour, leader of New Zealand's Liberal ACT party, said the government's plan would drive up electricity prices and do little to benefit the environment. "New Zealanders don't want to be subjected to a 'world-first' climate change experiment that means the government will micromanage their lives," Seymour said in a statement.  

British developer Rezolv Energy has acquired Bulgaria's largest photovoltaic project. The company plans to begin construction of the 227MW PV facility by the end of this year and will sell power to unspecified customers under the Power Purchase Agreement.   Uk-based Rezolv Energy has acquired a 227 MW solar project in Bulgaria from YGY Industries for an undisclosed amount. Construction of the project, located in Siristra in northeastern Bulgaria, will begin at the end of this year and is scheduled to be completed in early 2025.   "Once completed, it will be the largest solar power plant in Bulgaria," the renewable energy developer said in a statement, "the plant will be connected to the 110 kV main grid via two separate connection lines with a total length of about 6 kilometers." This electricity will be sold to commercial and industrial users through long-term Power purchase Agreements." Rezolv Energy is also currently building Romania's largest photovoltaic array - a 1,044 MW solar project, which Rezolv Energy bought from Romanian developer Monsson in November 2022. Rezolv Energy was founded in August 2022 with €500 million ($487.8 million) in funding from sustainable infrastructure investor Actis. The company says its goal is to "provide unsubsidized clean energy to commercial and industrial users and other offtakers in Central and South-eastern Europe at long-term stable prices."   In October 2022, Bulgaria's electricity system operator revealed that it had accepted applications for the construction of new renewable energy projects with a total installed capacity of more than 24 GW, double the country's existing power generation capacity.   According to European solar energy company SPE, Bulgaria's cumulative installed PV capacity reached 1.5 GW by the end of 2022. SPE said the country's installed PV capacity could reach 3.8GW by 2024, exceeding its 2030 target, with the increase coming mainly from subsidy-free large-scale solar projects built under the Power Purchase Agreement.

Germany installed more than 1 GW of new PV systems in June alone, and the cumulative PV installed capacity reached 73.8 GW by the end of the first half of this year.   Germany's Federal Power grid regulator (Bundesnetzagentur) reported that newly registered PV systems reached 1046.8 MW in June. 1040 MW will be added in May 2023 and 437 MW in June 2022.   In the first half of this year, new PV capacity in Germany reached 6.26 GW, up from about 2.36 GW in the same period last year. As of the end of June, the cumulative installed PV capacity was 73.8 GW, distributed in about 3.14 million PV systems.   Bavaria saw the largest increase this year, with about 1.6 GW in the first half, followed by North Rhine-Westphalia (971 MW) and Baden-Wurttemberg (nearly 833 MW).

U.S. solar contract prices fell for the first time in three years in the second quarter as module supplies eased, according to a report released Monday.   According to a report published by renewable Energy transaction research firm LevelTen Energy, solar contract prices in the United States fell 1% in the second quarter of the first quarter, although the margin is small, but this marks the first turn in the surge in solar contract prices since 2020.   In the past three years, the price of solar projects in the United States has continued to rise for nearly three years due to supply chain disruptions, inflation and the threat of import tariffs.   However, since the first quarter of this year, with the relaxation of import and export policies and the local incentives in the United States, the local component production capacity has increased rapidly, and the supply of components has gradually eased.   Due to the substantial growth of photovoltaic module imports, the photovoltaic installed capacity in the United States reached a record high in the first quarter, achieving 12GW of photovoltaic module imports, more than 40% of the whole of last year (29GW of module imports in 2022).   Meanwhile, according to a report from Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) trade group, the United States achieved 6.1GW of solar installations in the first quarter, the best quarter ever, driven by easing module supply.   However, despite the first decline in solar contract prices, the price of solar contracts in the United States was still up 25% in the second quarter compared with the same period last year.   "Although the decline is relatively small (just 1 percent), the news is still encouraging considering the consecutive gains of the last three years," Gia Clark, senior director of strategic accounts at LevelTen, said in an interview.

According to data from the Nationaal Klimaat platform, renewables accounted for about 49.6 percent of total electricity demand in the Netherlands in the first half of this year.   In the Netherlands, the Nationaal Klimaat platform reported that in the first half of 2023, photovoltaic power generation accounted for about 18.9% of the country's electricity demand.   Solar accounted for the highest share of renewables throughout the period, followed by onshore wind (14.2%), offshore wind (8.6%), biomass (7.8%) and hydropower (0.1%). Overall, renewables accounted for 49.6 per cent of the electricity mix, up from about 43 per cent the previous year.   The Nationaal Klimaat platform said: "Photovoltaic generation reached a new peak in June, accounting for more than a third of all electricity. There were about 140 hours in June when sustainable electricity generation from solar and wind was greater than the total electricity demand of the Netherlands."   The agency said the increase in renewables' share was mainly due to a reduction in total electricity consumption throughout the first half of the year, noting that clean energy could soon surpass the 50 percent mark as more wind and solar power stations are expected to be connected to the grid by the end of the year.   The increase in renewable energy generation has not led to negative electricity prices, the agency said, adding that demand from neighbouring countries has helped prevent this from happening.   According to a new report by Netbeheer Nederland, the national association of regional electricity and gas network operators in the Netherlands, the total installed solar capacity in the Netherlands could reach 100 GW to 180 GW by 2050. According to the latest data from the Dutch statistical agency CBS, the country's cumulative installed PV capacity reached 16.5 GW at the end of June 2022, and said the country had installed 3,803 MW in 2021 and 3,882 MW in 2022.

According to a study, more than half of Germany's electricity consumption in the first half of 2023 came from renewable sources.   The Baden-Wurttemberg Research Centre for Solar and Hydrogen Energy (ZSW) and the Federal Association for Energy and Water Management (BDEW) announced that in the first half of 2023, renewables covered about 52 percent of total domestic electricity consumption, three percentage points higher than in the same period in 2022 (49 percent).   In May 2023, in particular, 57% of electricity consumption was provided by renewables due to sunny weather, up from the previous record of 62% set in February 2022. German photovoltaic systems produced 8.8 billion kWh of electricity this month, higher than ever before.   The two organizations also said that according to preliminary statistics, the power generation of photovoltaic systems in June could even exceed 10 billion kWh, breaking the record set in May.   Kerstin Andreae, chairman of the BDEW Executive Board, said Germany needs a proper regulatory framework to meet its 2045 climate-neutral target. Recently, the German Federal Ministry for Economic and Climate Protection (BMWK) launched a request for interest to promote the development of the solar PV manufacturing supply chain in Germany.   At the same time, Andreae says skilled workers are needed. In late March, the German government announced changes to its current immigration policy to attract skilled workers.   Frithjof Stai, executive director of ZSW? If Germany wants to be climate neutral by 2045, it will have to generate all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2035.   The German government is aiming for 215GW of installed capacity by 2030. As a result, Germany's solar capacity will need to nearly double by the end of the decade.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as solar generation has increased in California, the grid operator of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) has seen net load (the remaining demand after subtracting variable renewable energy generation) decline on days when solar generation tends to be at its highest. When charting the load for a typical day, it can be seen that the net load curve drops sharply in the middle of the day and then rises sharply in the evening when the solar generation drops, so that the curve formed looks like the outline of a duck, so this pattern is often referred to as the "duck curve". As California's solar generation continues to grow, the decline in midday net load is increasing, creating challenges for grid operators. Grid operators need to balance a region's generation and electricity demand at all times. Demand is lowest overnight, when most consumers are sleeping and many businesses are closed. In the morning, as people wake up and businesses open for business, demand starts to increase. Demand kept rising throughout the day, rising slightly in the evening as people returned home from work and residential electricity use increased, then falling again late at night. However, unlike conventional power plants, such as nuclear, coal and natural gas plants, solar and wind resources cannot be deployed at will to meet demand, and utilities have at some point had to cut back on these resources to protect grid operations. Solar energy is generated only during the day, peaking at noon when the sun is at its strongest and waning at sunset. As more solar capacity comes online and conventional power plants are used less frequently in the middle of the day, the duck curve becomes more pronounced. The duck curve implies two challenges associated with the increased use of solar energy. The first challenge is the strain on the power grid. Demand for electricity from conventional power plants fluctuates dramatically from midday to late at night, when energy demand is still high, but solar generation has declined, meaning that conventional power plants (such as natural gas plants) must rapidly increase electricity production to meet consumer demand. This rapid growth makes it harder for grid operators to match grid supply and grid demand in real time. In addition, if the amount of solar energy produced exceeds the amount used by the grid, operators may have to reduce solar power generation to prevent over-generation. The other challenge is economic. The dynamic nature of the duck curve can challenge the traditional economics of dispatchable power plants because the factors that lead to the curve reduce the operating time of conventional power plants, resulting in reduced electricity revenue. If the loss of revenue makes plant maintenance uneconomical, the plant may be decommissioned without a dispatchable replacement. In systems where net demand fluctuates greatly, the reduction in dispatchable power make...

Serbian authorities have launched the country's first renewable energy auction, allocating 50 MW of photovoltaic projects and 400 MW of wind projects. These projects will be supported through contracts for difference over a 15-year period. Serbian Prime Minister Brnabic has launched an auction to allocate 450 MW of renewable energy capacity. Serbia has allocated 50 MW of solar PV projects and 400 MW of wind projects in its first renewable energy auction. The projects will be supported through a 15-year contract for difference. The upcoming auction sets a ceiling price of €105 ($113.56) per megawatt-hour for wind farms larger than 3 MW and €90 per megawatt-hour for solar projects larger than 500 kW. State-owned utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) will be the exclusive offtaker for these projects. The bidding deadline is August 14, 2023. The auction is the first phase of a three-year plan to allocate fees for a total of 1,000 MW of wind capacity and 300 MW of solar capacity. "Taking into account the relevant market prices, it is estimated that with the successful implementation of the auction, the Serbian power company will receive more than 3 million euros per year," Dubravka d 'Edovidic, Serbia's Minister of Mines and energy, said in a statement. Successful bidders must comply with a newly adopted balanced responsibility contract model that requires them to pay a surcharge to EPS for output deviations. The surcharge will be calculated based on the previous day's market prices, the government said. The auction will receive financial support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In March, the EBRD approved a €300 million EPS financing program to accelerate the development of wind and solar energy and help Serbia meet its goal of phasing out coal by 2050. The bank has been assisting Serbia with renewable energy auctions since 2020. According to the description of the draft plan of the Serbian government, the country plans to achieve the goal of 8.3 GW of PV installed capacity by 2024. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Serbia has 137 MW of installed PV capacity by the end of 2022.

On June 12, according to the French Ecological Transformation Ministry report, in the January-March quarter of this year, France has about 601MW of new photovoltaic installed projects connected to the grid. As of the end of March, France's cumulative installed PV capacity reached 17.15GW. By the end of March 2023, France's cumulative installed photovoltaic capacity reached 17.15 GW. In the first quarter of this year, the regions of Nueva Aquitaine, Auvergne Rhene Alpes, Provence Alpes-Cote d 'Azur and Greater Eastern accounted for 63% of all new capacity connected to the grid. Several regions have the highest installed capacity in France, accounting for more than 73% of France's cumulative electricity generation at the end of March. At the same time, the total capacity of solar projects in line for grid connection has increased by 40 percent to 18.5GW since the beginning of the year, including 4.4GW of signed grid connection agreements.