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Suntech Provides 8.5 MW of Solar Panels to the Philippines
Dec 30, 2015 | PR Newswire
Suntech has announced today that the completed 8.5 MW solar farm located in Valenzuela City is now fully operational. The newly operating solar farm is considered to be the largest urban PV installation in the Philippines. Suntech has provided 32,000 panels to support this project. -
China sets slightly lower solar target for 2016
Dec 30, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has set a target of 15 GW of new solar PV capacity for 2016 – slightly lower than the goal of 17.8 GW of new additional capacity set for 2015. This slight reduction in ambition is at odds with the nation’s wider goal to reach 150 GW of solar PV capacity by 2020. Currently, China has more than 40GW... -
China to install 15GW of solar, 20GW of wind in 2016 — NEA
Dec 30, 2015 | Recharge
By Brian Publicover
China will install at least 15GW of solar and 20GW of wind capacity in 2016, according to a statement this week by the National Energy Administration (NEA). The new annual targets — along with a pledge by NEA director Nur Bekri to stop approving the construction of new coal mines by 2019 — are part of the government’s plans to contain carbon.. -
India sets aside USD 753m for rooftop solar subsidies to 2020
Dec 30, 2015 | See News Renewables
By Tsvetomira Tsanova
India’s budget for subsidising grid-connected rooftop solar systems over the next five years has been increased to INR 50 billion (USD 753m/EUR 689m) from INR 6 billion previously by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. That amount will support 4.2 GW of rooftop solar installations under the National Solar Mission (NSM)... -
SolarCity Accounts For ⅓ Of US Residential Rooftop Installations In 2015
Dec 29, 2015 | Clean Technica
By Glenn Meyers
2015 has been a good year for SolarCity after tallying over one-third of all residential rooftop installations in this country. The five leading US installers accounted for more than half of all residential solar installations between Q1 and Q3 of this year. But SolarCity has claimed the lion’s share of this market pie, reporting 34% of residential solar... -
Scotland ups solar footprint by 28% in 2015
Dec 30, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
The least sunny part of the U.K. appears to be shining in the face of solar cuts affecting the rest of the country, with data published today showing that Scotland’s solar sector has grown by 28% this year. There is now 179 MW of solar PV capacity installed north of the border, and while this is only a fraction of the U.K... -
Environmental Giving in 2015: Boldest Moves and Top Trends
Dec 30, 2015 | Inside Philanthropy
By Tate Williams
We’ve been steadily beating the drum lately that funders need to up their game when it comes to the environment, but that doesn’t mean 2015 was short on action—it was a big year. Here’s a look at some of the most exciting developments in green giving.
Press Release - Suntech Provides 8.5 MW of Solar Panels to the Philippines
Industry News
Full Text of Stories Below
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Suntech Provides 8.5 MW of Solar Panels to the Philippines
Dec 30, 2015 | PR Newswire
Suntech has announced today that the completed 8.5 MW solar farm located in Valenzuela City is now fully operational. The newly operating solar farm is considered to be the largest urban PV installation in the Philippines. Suntech has provided 32,000 panels to support this project.
"We're very excited to have contributed to one of the largest urban projects in the Philippines," says president of Suntech, Victor Xiong. "Suntech's weather-resistant modules are perfectly suited for the Philippine's hot and humid climate, providing optimal daylight power generation. The completion of this project is the perfect way to transition into 2016. This project parallels Suntech's vision to promote energy independence and sustainability, while helping to create jobs. We hope to work with other municipalities in the country in order to help promote a clean energy future in the Philippines."
The 8.5 MW solar plant was inaugurated in late November and is intended to be sold to Manila Electric Co. The newly functioning solar field is supported by Suntech's STP260-20/Wem 60 cell polycrystalline module, which has a strong performance rate in low light conditions and IP68-rated junction box that reduces the possibility of water or dirt ingress. The operating solar farm is expected to generate approximately 11,379 megawatt hours of electricity, providing power to roughly 17,614 households, offsetting approximately 5,473 tons of carbon emissions per year.
From January 18th to 21st, Suntech will be present at the World Future Energy Summit 2016 in Abu Dhabi, booth number 8110. The following products will be featured at the exhibition: the HyPro with PERC technology, whose average cell efficiency in mass production can reach up to 20.7% and is an optimal panel choice for residential and rooftop projects; the SuperPoly module which has an integrated, in-depth reflection technology and passivation process, ideal for utility-scale projects; a 1,500V high system voltage module, engineered for both utility-scale and commercial applications that can achieve a 3-4% reduction in system costs compared to 1,000V modules; and a high-performance double glass module, which can outstand sandstorms and is perfect for a desert, arid environment. Suntech's products are high PID resistance and provide highly performance yields. They come with a 10-year product warranty, along with excellent customer service.
About Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd.
Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd., a company incorporated in the PRC in January 2001, produces industry-leading solar products for residential, commercial, industrial, and utility applications. Suntech is a Bloomberg New Energy Finance's tier 1 solar company, based on its bankability and has delivered more than 30 million photovoltaic panels or 9 GWs of installed capacity to more than 1 thousand customers in more than 80 countries. Suntech's pioneering R&D creates customer-centric innovations that are driving solar to grid parity against fossil fuels. Suntech's mission is to provide reliable access to nature's cleanest and most abundant energy source.
PR Newswire (English): http://en.prnasia.com/story/archive/1587092_AE87092_0
PR Newswire (German): http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/suntech-stellt-85-mw-solarmodule-fur-philippinen-bereit-563801331.html
PR Newsire (Chinese): http://www.prnasia.com/story/archive/1587092_ZH87092_1
SolarServer (German): http://www.solarserver.de/solar-magazin/nachrichten/aktuelles/2015/kw52/suntech-liefert-photovoltaik-module-mit-85-mw-fuer-einen-solarpark-auf-den-philippinen.html
Yahoo Finance: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/suntech-provides-8-5-mw-072100848.html
China Money Network: http://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2015/12/30/suntech-provides-8-5-mw-of-solar-panels-to-the-philippines
Finanzen (German): http://www.finanzen.net/nachricht/aktien/Suntech-stellt-8-5-MW-Solarmodule-fuer-Philippinen-bereit-4669898
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China sets slightly lower solar target for 2016
Dec 30, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has set a target of 15 GW of new solar PV capacity for 2016 – slightly lower than the goal of 17.8 GW of new additional capacity set for 2015.
This slight reduction in ambition is at odds with the nation’s wider goal to reach 150 GW of solar PV capacity by 2020. Currently, China has more than 40GW of solar PV installed, but the NEA said in October that it would be looking to increase the deployment of solar to 20 GW of new capacity annually.
According to the NEA, China will end 2015 with 43 GW of cumulative solar PV capacity installed.
However, issues with curtailment in some regions, added to ongoing delays in subsidy payments for some of China’s larger solar parks have served to highlight deficiencies in the country’s grid and funding infrastructure in matching the pace of development in 2015.
Despite modest lowering of its solar target, China is still aiming to increase its solar and wind capacity in 2016 by 21% as the country works towards lowering its greenhouse gas emissions and reducing its reliance on fossil fuels, particularly coal.
The NEA statement said that China will seek to add 20 GW of new wind power capacity next year as part of its drive to reach 20% renewable penetration by 2030.
According to Chinese newswire Xinhu News Agency, the NEA will also halt approvals of new coal mines within three years as the nation looks to lose its tag as the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide.
In order to fund its clean energy push, China announced this week that it will cut the feed-in tariff (FIT) for solar installations, and will also add a 27% surcharge on to domestic energy bills (of around 0.019 yuan per kWh of electricity), according to Bloomberg, which cited a report by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
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China to install 15GW of solar, 20GW of wind in 2016 — NEA
Dec 30, 2015 | Recharge
By Brian Publicover
China will install at least 15GW of solar and 20GW of wind capacity in 2016, according to a statement this week by the National Energy Administration (NEA).
The new annual targets — along with a pledge by NEA director Nur Bekri to stop approving the construction of new coal mines by 2019 — are part of the government’s plans to contain carbon emissions and make renewables account for roughly 20% of the national energy mix within the next 15 years.
The NEA — an entity under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) — expects the country’s cumulative wind capacity to reach 120GW by the end of this year, with total nationwide solar installations set to hit 43GW.
Separately, the NDRC announced plans to raise the surcharge it levies on electricity consumers to subsidise the development of renewable energy to roughly 0.02 yuan/kWh, up approximately 27% from current levels.
It remains unclear if the new surcharges — which will go into effect from 1 January — will help to expedite long-delayed payments of subsidies to solar and wind developers.
The NEA also pledged support for State Grid’s ongoing efforts to expand and modernise the national grid.
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India sets aside USD 753m for rooftop solar subsidies to 2020
Dec 30, 2015 | See News Renewables
By Tsvetomira Tsanova
India’s budget for subsidising grid-connected rooftop solar systems over the next five years has been increased to INR 50 billion (USD 753m/EUR 689m) from INR 6 billion previously by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
That amount will support 4.2 GW of rooftop solar installations under the National Solar Mission (NSM) up to fiscal year 2019/20, says a press release by the government. A capital subsidy of 30% is provided for general category states, while special category states can take up to 70%. The special category states list includes disadvantaged states in the north-east.
The subsidies under the budget will be available for residential projects and for rooftop installations on government, social and institutional buildings. Commercial and industrial projects in the private sector are not eligible for these subsidies, but they can take advantage of other incentives such as accelerated depreciation and excise duty exemptions, among others.
The increase in budget comes to support India’s goal of having 40 GWp of rooftop solar capacity in 2022.
(INR 100 = USD 1.506/EUR 1.378)
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SolarCity Accounts For ⅓ Of US Residential Rooftop Installations In 2015
Dec 29, 2015 | Clean Technica
By Glenn Meyers
2015 has been a good year for SolarCity after tallying over one-third of all residential rooftop installations in this country.
The five leading US installers accounted for more than half of all residential solar installations between Q1 and Q3 of this year. But SolarCity has claimed the lion’s share of this market pie, reporting 34% of residential solar PV installations in the first three-quarters of 2015, according to GTM Research’s “US PV Leaderboard: Q4 2015.”
The market share of the leading US residential solar installers in this period are listed as follows: SolarCity 34.1%Vivint Solar 11.6%Sunrun 2.6%NRG Home Solar 2%Sungevity 1.9%
GTM Research also reports this is the third year the US residential market has seen more than 50% growth. This encouraging data provides sound news for the solar energy industry and for renewable energy overall.
The research report concluded, “This rapid growth can largely be attributed to the widespread availability and increasing diversity of financing solutions.” Lower pricing should also be counted as a contributor to this growth picture.
The residential market is also expected to profit from the extension of the ITC tax credit for solar beyond 2022, with the current 30% level remaining until 2019. The ITC had been scheduled to close at the end of 2016 for residential systems with larger projects dropping from the current 30% level to 10%.
GTM Research expects the competitive landscape for this industry will continue evolving, pointing to new market entrants, acquisitions, and changing consumer finance options.
The US Department of Energy has reported,
“Since President Obama took office, the number of homes with rooftop solar has grown from more than 66,000 to 734,000. Last year, the solar industry added jobs 10 times faster than the rest of the economy and solar represented 40 percent of all new electric generating capacity brought online in the first half of 2015. Since the beginning of 2010, the average cost of a solar electric system has dropped by 50 percent. In fact, distributed solar prices fell 10 to 20 percent in 2014 alone. And since President Obama took office, solar power has increased twenty fold.”
We look forward to charting similar growth data for residential rooftop solar in the coming year.
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Scotland ups solar footprint by 28% in 2015
Dec 30, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
The least sunny part of the U.K. appears to be shining in the face of solar cuts affecting the rest of the country, with data published today showing that Scotland’s solar sector has grown by 28% this year.
There is now 179 MW of solar PV capacity installed north of the border, and while this is only a fraction of the U.K. overall total, it represents an encouraging expansion for the industry – particularly the residential sector.
Of the total installed PV capacity in Scotland, 159 MW is fitted atop homes, with 40,000 households now boasting a solar array. At commercial scale, it is a more modest 850 business premises, but the trend appears to suggest that Scotland will continue to embrace solar in 2016 and beyond.
Commenting on the data from energy regulator Ofgem, WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said that, despite the challenges facing the solar industry in the U.K., it is “fantastic” to see so many homes and businesses embracing solar.
“Although the total installed solar capacity is small when compared to wind energy, we should remember that collectively these solar panels are helping to prevent thousands of tonnes of climate-damaging emissions being emitted every year,” Banks said.
John Forster of the Solar Trade Association Scotland also welcomed the data, remarking how the growth is “very much in contrast” to the scrapping of the Zero Carbon Homes target by the Westminster government.
Forster did, however, urge the Scottish government to bring forward measures to encourage a greater uptake of solar power for many more Scottish households and businesses.
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Environmental Giving in 2015: Boldest Moves and Top Trends
Dec 30, 2015 | Inside Philanthropy
By Tate Williams
We’ve been steadily beating the drum lately that funders need to up their game when it comes to the environment, but that doesn’t mean 2015 was short on action—it was a big year. Here’s a look at some of the most exciting developments in green giving.
Who says environmentalism is boring? Okay, I guess I might have once. And yet, whether it was due to the historic Paris climate talks or the ongoing surge in philanthropy overall, we saw some big stuff happening in the past year's environmental giving.
We don’t always agree with the approaches the top funders are taking, and most of these nods come with caveats. But a number of players have either challenged the status quo, stepped out of their comfort zones, or in some cases sent out shockwaves throughout the environmental community. In no particular order:
MacArthur Gets Serious About Climate Change
We saw this one coming, as Mac was sending out more and more feelers into the climate and energy fields. Their environmental work was historically rooted firmly in geographically focused conservation, with climate and energy popping up here and there. But as part of new President Julia Stasch’s substantial overhaul of MacArthur’s cumbersome programs, climate change is now a top priority.
“Regardless of where we work and what we work on, climate change will somehow have an impact on that, and it is time for us to step up and make our contribution,” Program Director Jorgen Thomsen told us in August.
The foundation kicked off the new program with $50 million in commitments, and while we’d like to see giving branch out more from the big greens, the program holds a ton of potential and sends a signal to the philanthropic community that this is the issue of our time. Now if only the Walton Family Foundation would get with it.
Bill Gates Puts His Money (and Many Others') on Energy Innovation
We're conflicted about this one. After all, not too long before Bill Gates announced his initiative to rally several private backers and governments to invest several billion dollars into energy tech innovation, we made our case for wealthy donors to step up on the issue.
While R&D is undeniably an important component of the work to be done, the idea of placing a lopsided focus on invention—overshadowing movement-building or support for local transitions—is concerning. We already have technology ready to go that can make substantial headway toward 100 percent clean renewable, but popular momentum and deployment efforts are lacking. Right now, for example, there's not enough consensus in the U.S. on climate change for us to uphold our end of the Paris climate deal. Even one of Gates’s “energy miracles” won’t save us without massive movement on the ground, and public demand can play a big part in spurring innovation.
It’s amazing to see so much money flowing on the issue, and this was one of a few seismic events in 2015 signaling that the world is starting to come to its senses on climate. But Gates has a way of skewing an issue, and it would be a shame if we bet the house on new inventions to save us.
Longtime Donors Step Up Their Philanthropy
In 2015 we saw a handful of influential environmental philanthropists expand their giving, but also become more sophisticated, strategic, and transparent. A lot of philanthropy that was formerly self-directed, or sporadic, or benefitting a predictable couple of beneficiaries took a notable shift. Here are the highlights: Hansjörg Wyss continued to enter the big league of green funders, delving into new territory like the Amazon, oceans, environmental leadership, and green journalism. This marks broader and more public philanthropy than his longtime work protecting land in the American West. Leonardo DiCaprio’s philanthropy has been on the rise since 2013, but this year, his portfolio got way more interesting, with a larger and more diverse array of grants. LDF still needs to make its finances far more transparent, but we’re seeing an encouraging divergence from his past routine of dropping a few million here and there to groups like WWF or NRDC.The Kendeda Fund emerged from the shadows in 2015, with donor Diana Blank shedding her anonymity and even launching a website detailing strategy and grantees. The move was part of a major green building initiative launching in Georgia, which will put them in the league of the Bullitt Foundation when it comes to sustainable design.The Pisces Foundation is beginning its national environmental grantmaking in earnest, with donors Bob and Randi Fisher elevating their philanthropy from mostly self-directed support, as board members of groups like NRDC. Led by longtime NRDC water advocate David Beckman, this California-based foundation is taking on some unique niches in fresh water and climate change.
Green 2.0’s Heightened Push to Diversify the Movement
For many years, it’s been a well-known problem that environmentalism is a field with a troubling lack of people of color in its leadership and base. To achieve meaningful progress on green issues, and because it’s just the right thing to do, a segment of the community has been pushing to get leaders to own up to the problem and take steps to fix it.
Since 2014, an initiative led by Green 2.0 has been working to get nonprofit and philanthropic leaders to make concrete efforts to diversify the movement. A first step is disclosure of diversity data, and Green 2.0 has been asking top groups to pony up, just as they would financial information. Many have, but some of the largest players responded with crickets.
There are still major foundations staying silent (Walton, Rockefeller, Bloomberg), but Green 2.0 has been persistent, getting some big wins like signing on Packard, Moore, and MacArthur after some delay. Those who don’t embrace this effort stand to be left behind along with an outdated paradigm of what it means to be an environmentalist.
Divestment Is Becoming a Runaway Train
When the divestment movement began to pick up speed on college campuses, it resulted in a lot of condescension and patting idealistic students on the heads. But efforts to get universities, municipalities, churches, and foundations to stop investing in fossil fuel companies couldn't be ignored in 2015. The effort now has around 500 institutions on board, 25 percent of which are foundations.
While divestment is often chalked up as a symbolic act, when combined with other factors—like tanking energy stocks, the message sent by the Paris agreement, Exxon Mobil’s coverup of climate science—fossil fuels are looking like an increasingly worse business to be bought into. Even foundations like Gates, which has publicly dismissed the movement, appear to be shedding oil and gas investments.
Bloomberg’s War on Coal, Rallying of Cities
Mike Bloomberg is maybe the most pragmatic, level-headed big philanthropist out there, such that we’ve started calling him the “Spock of philanthropy.” But give him credit—when he sees an opening where he can make a dent in a problem, he drops the hammer. Bloomberg gave another $30 million to Sierra Club’s campaign to shut down coal plants, rounding up an additional $30 million from other donors. His request from the Club in return: more data on progress please.
Bloomberg has also been instrumental in the Risky Business initiative, a research-based effort to elevate climate change as a priority for business leaders. The program is a bipartisan collaboration between Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, and Hank Paulson, and is growing into a full-fledged advocacy group of sorts.
He’s also emerged as a leader when it comes to the growing concept that cities need to take over to solve the world’s toughest problems. This came in the form of a $42 million program asking cities to use data to become more effective, and his leadership role in the Paris Climate talks.
Press Release - Suntech Provides 8.5 MW of Solar Panels to the Philippines
Industry News
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