Abengoa has completed a 206MW solar PV plant, which is claimed to be the world’s largest single-axis photovoltaic plant, in south-east California.

Located in the city of Calexico, the Mount Signal Solar PV plant will supply power to around 72,000 households in San Diego and its surrounding area, preventing the emission of 356,000t of CO2/year into the atmosphere. The company will not retain an interest in the constructed assets.

Under the contract worth $365m, Abengoa was responsible for the engineering, construction and commissioning of the plant for Silver Ridge Power.

The project is spread across 801 hectares and consists of more than three million photovoltaic modules that rotate on a north-south axis tracking the path of the sun.

During the construction process, Abengoa signed agreements with various local firms in order to boost economic development in the region.

At its peak, the project created more than 700 direct jobs in the area, most of which were filled by local residents. The company constructed and commissioned the plant in a record 16 months.

Abengoa is currently carrying out various projects in EE.UU., an area that accounts for 28% of its business. These include Solana, the world’s largest parabolic trough plant that has been operating since last year; Mojave, a 280MW solar-thermal plant that will be operating mid of this year; and a new photovoltaic project in California for EDP Renováveis.

Fukushima experienced the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl when a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit three years ago. Now, the region is trying to turn the “lost landscape” into massive renewable energy fields. The prefecture has declared “zero dependency on nuclear energy” and created a goal to meet 100 percent of its electricity needs with renewable energy, such as solar, by 2040. The prefectures also believes that investing in renewable energy will spur economic development and create jobs to help its recovery and rebuilding efforts.

China has announced plans to step up its domestic solar power development, aiming for 70 GW of installed capacity by 2017.

According to a statement from the National Development and Reform Commission, China – currently the world’s largest carbon emitter – hopes to reduce its dependence on coal by more than tripling its current solar capacity (logged at 20 GW at the end of 2013) as well as installing 150 GW of wind power, 11 GW of biomass power and 330 GW of hydropower by 2017.

China’s 2017 targets also include an increase in nuclear power capacity to 50 GW and growth in natural gas supply capacity to 330 billion cubic metres.

Wang Xiaoting, an analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, has called China’s trend toward alternative energy sources “stable” and said in a Bloomberg article that the nation’s newest solar target will be “easily attained if China keeps the current development pace”.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Anti-Dumping Commission is to open an investigation into whether Chinese companies have been ‘dumping’ solar panels and modules in the Australian market, while India has found evidence of dumping practices by both China and the US and will decide this month whether to impose duties on solar imports from the two nations.

China stepped up its plans for domestic solar power development after both the US and the EU initiated anti-dumping investigations against Chinese firms.

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is planning to close the Renewables Obligation (RO) for more than 5MW of solar developments from 1 April 2015 across England, Wales and Scotland.

The DECC said that it proposes to continue RO for solar projects below 5MW of capacity and these are not eligible for the new Contracts for Difference (CfDs).

The developers of solar projects above 5MW are now required to apply for support under the CfD auctions.

This move is intended to protect the Levy Control Framework, which sets the total budget for renewable power projects under FITs, RO and CfDs.

According to DECC, recent growth in the large-scale solar sector, fuelled by RO support and the small scale Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme, has absorbed higher budget than the UK Government’s expectations.

Currently, the UK has 2.7GW of solar photovoltaic capacity, which is enough to power 620,000 homes, and it is an important part of the UK’s energy mix.

The Renewable Energy Association chief executive Dr Nina Skorupska said, “Solar power meanwhile is subjected yet again to devastating instability. The government must ensure that policy drives and rewards technology cost reductions with a stable trajectory of gradually declining financial support, not the cliff edge the government is proposing for solar.”

The Solar Trade Association CEO said, “The industry will be alarmed by these proposals and surprised to be singled out for harsh treatment. It does look like the government is seeking to define the energy mix and hiding behind the false excuse of ‘budget management’.”

According to the STA, these proposals are highly complex and will have an impact on small and medium enterprises, which are prevalent in solar, compared to big utilities.

A hybrid diesel-solar photovoltaic (PV) on-site power system has produced big savings for an Ecuadorean airport.

Power to the main airport on Baltra, one of the Galapagos islands, was previously supplied by two diesel generatorswhich produced 1200 GWh/year.

A solar power plant, added in October 2013, produces more than 141 GWh/year and has reduced the gensets’ fuel consumption as well as saving up to 12% on fuel costs, according to photovoltaic inverter manufacturer Ingeteam, whose inverters were recently installed in the solar plant’s power supply system.

In the hybrid system, Ingeteam said its diesel-PV controllers monitor power flows and manage the PV power injected into the diesel grid in order to guarantee system stability, achieving up to 70% of PV penetration compared to the total diesel capacity.

The 18 kWp system features 352 solar panels and three Ingecon Sun 25 U inverters. These inverters have been specifically designed to comply with US regulations, are suitable for outdoor installation and achieve a maximum efficiency of 96.1%, Ingeteam said.

The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has revealed plans to remove support for solar developments over 5 MW from April 2015.

The department says that the recent growth in the large-scale solar sector, fuelled by renewable obligation (RO) support, has taken up more budget than the government has anticipated and that the cut was necessary to preserve budgets and control spending. However, the industry has reacted furiously, accusing the government of an unjustified bias against the solar sector, pointing out that solar only takes up 5 per cent of the RO budget.

The prospect of a legal challenge being mounted first came about when the government’s action got into thepublic domain at the end of April.

What is more galling for solar interests in the UK is that there were recent assurances in Parliament from energy minister Michael Fallon that no further changes to the RO were planned.

For all solar over 5 MW, the industry is expected to switch to the new Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme from next year, but CfDs are far less accessible for the SMEs that are prevalent in the solar sector. Furthermore the CfD proposals contain no minima for solar – as the STA has made clear, solar will not be able to compete with onshore wind until 2017/18. According to the Solar Trade Association the movr is ‘an own goal, as if DECC’s proposals go through, they will severely disrupt the solar industry’s speed of cost reduction.’

There will be no change to the RO for this current year and investments already made by today will receive a one year grace period after the RO closes to 5 MW+ solar in April 2015.

The solar farm industry has also brought costs down by 30 per cent over the past two years, and solar was on track to be the cheapest source of low carbon power by 2018.

STA CEO Paul Barwell said, “The costs of solar power have kept on falling, in large part thanks to the growth and learning in our successful UK industry. We had forecast solar could be cheaper than onshore wind by 2018, but for this to happen we needed stable policy sustaining a high-volume market. The Government is actually moving to slow down solar’s cost reductions towards grid parity.

“The industry will be alarmed by these proposals and surprised to be singled out for harsh treatment. It does look like the Government is seeking to define the energy mix and hiding behind the false excuse of ‘budget management’.

Spanish company Abengoa has secured an approval from the Chilean Environmental Service to construct the 110MW Cerro Dominador solar-thermal plant.

The project, which uses molten salts tower technology, will be the first solar-thermal plant for direct electricity production in South America and is also the first non-conventional renewable energy project to serve as a baseload power plant.

Abengoa said that the Chilean Environmental Service’s evaluation and review committee has unanimously voted to approve the project, located in the Atacama Desert, after reviewing the absence of any type of negative impact during the construction and operations phases.

The Cerro Dominador solar project will feature a thermal storage system, designed and developed by Abengoa that will enable electricity to be produced for approximately 18 hours without the need for a solar resource.

This will allow the plant to provide generate electricity 24 hours a day and to respond to all demand periods for power consumption.

Development of the Cerro Dominador solar project forms part of the Chilean Government’s national renewable energy development program, intended to provide the nation with a clean energy future.

Abengoa said that will hold a ceremony to begin the project on 14 May 2014 at the site in the commune of María Elena in the Antofagasta region, northern Chile.

The project will create an average of 700 direct jobs, requiring up to 2,000 workers. Once the project begins operations, around 50 stable jobs will be created.

Additionally, the development, commissioning and operation of the plant will provide a high number of indirect jobs.

Abengoa’s Cerro Dominador solar project will avoid the emission of about 643,000t of CO2 into the atmosphere annually.

Abengoa won a favorable environmental rating from the authorities of the Chilean Environmental Service to develop asolar-thermal plant using molten salts tower technology with an installed capacity of 110 MW.

The project, located in the Atacama Desert, the region with the highest levels of solar radiation in the world, has been regularly visited by the authorities from the Chilean Environmental Service and the regional services in order to perform various types of evaluations as part of the process to grant environmental authorization to the project.

The Evaluation and Review Committee unanimously voted to approve the project after verifying the absence of any type of negative impact during the construction and operations phases.

The experts took into account issues such as use of the land, water, air, emissions and waste, as well as any other aspect that could generate an environmental impact in the area where the plant will be constructed.

Cerro Dominador will be the first solar-thermal plant for direct electricity production in South America. It is also the first non-conventional renewable energy plant to serve as a baseload power plant thanks to its production stability and reliability.

Furthermore, it will have a thermal storage system designed and developed by Abengoa, which will enable electricity to be produced for about 18 hours without the need for a solar power resource. This will enable it to supply electricity in a stable way, 24 hours a day, and to respond to all demand periods for electricity consumption.

Abengoa will hold a ceremony to mark the start of the project on May 14 at the project’s site in the commune of Maria Elena in the Antofagasta region, northern Chile, to which the most senior regional and national authorities have been invited.

Construction of this plant will generate an average of 700 direct jobs, requiring up to 2,000 workers. Around 50 stable jobs will be created once the project comes into commercial operation. Similarly, the development, commissioning and operation of the plant will generate a high number of indirect jobs, as well as a network of services and new industrial investments that will develop the local market, promoting economic growth in the country.

US President Barack Obama is to use his executive authority to bypass Congress and authorise a $2bn funding drive for energy-saving measures at federal government buildings.

The Presidential announcement coincides with the news that the White House’s new rooftop solar array is operational.

The $2bn funding drive will include new financing and training programmes for solar installations.

The announcements, to be made on a trip to California, cap a climate-focused week at the White House, following the release of an authoritative report on the growing threat posed by heat waves, severe downpours and sea-level rise.”We are going to be doing everything we can, with the tools that we have to move forward,” Dan Utech, special assistant to the president on energy and climate change told reporters.

Officials confirmed that in a largely symbolic move, the White House solar install is now complete.

The solar panels were part of a broader energy retrofit at the White House, demonstrating it was possible to introduce renewable energy even in historic buildings, officials claimed.

Solar panels were originally installed at the White House under Jimmy Carter, but Ronald Reagan ordered them dismantled in 1986. Obama brought in the latest solar technology as a sign of his commitment to renewable energy.

The panels will repay the costs of installation within eight years.