Connections, storage wars and the cost of doing business: Australia’s solar year ahead
Summer is notionally over and analysts at Rystad Energy have coolly assessed the coming year into 2020; in Sydney the Rystad team convened an experienced panel of market participants to give their take on what solar developers, EPCs, investors, equipment suppliers and skill seekers can expect in months to come.
Vietnam mulls multi-layered FIT scheme as it kicks energy transition into gear
With its feed-in tariff set to expire at the end of June, Vietnam is considering different levels of payment, classified across three irradiation regions and involving four solar technologies. Future payments would range from $0.0659-0.0985/kWh, with the cloudy north in line for the highest tariffs and with the government likely to revise tariffs for new projects every two years.
Module price declines could result in $60/MWh utility scale solar
Falling module prices could very well dramatically enhance the competitiveness of large scale solar in Australia – pushing the price at which PV can be produced below the wholesale curve. Rystad Energy believes that with a 20-30% module price decline, as has been forecast, $60MWh utility scale solar could become the new reality.
Rystad: Fully-commissioned utility-scale PV capacity to double by July
Australia is set to quadruple its utility-scale PV capacity in 2018, with a 2 GW pipeline. The effects of the expansion are now beginning to show, as projects come online. So far just 0.1 MW of the 2018 pipeline are fully operational, but as of July this is going to change.
Rystad Energy: 83% of utility scale pipeline to deploy tracking
Single-axis tracking technology will be deployed in the vast majority of Australian large scale solar projects currently under development. Rystad Energy made the observation in its latest research note, adding that at present two companies share 90% of the confirmed orders.
