Africa & Middle East

Amid an increasingly unpredictable environment and a rise in extreme weather events, the solar industry must properly use its available data to protect assets and reduce risks, writes Gareth Brown, CEO of digital asset performance technology provider Clir Renewables.

While bifacial modules promise advantages in power production, they can create complex performance monitoring challenges. That will need to be resolved if project production uncertainties are expected to remain at levels and expectations currently set with the deployment of mono-facial modules, write Ajay Singh and Derek Jones of Campbell Scientific Inc.

Saudi energy provider ACWA Power has secured a US$123 million financing package to develop a 200MW solar PV project in Egypt.

The project is expected to be operational in the first half of 2024, with the total financial volume estimated at US$245.95 million.

The cumulative capacity of installed and commissioned PV increased by more than 25% last year, and reached about 1.2TW by the end of 2022.

A solar-plus-storage project is being planned for the capital of South Africa, as the city looks to move “away from Eskom reliance and towards a load-shedding-free Cape Town”, its Mayor said.

Globally, 32% of business leaders estimated that their country will fully transition to renewables after 2050, while 8% said it would never happen.

A new record efficiency for lab-tested peroviskite/silicon tandem cells has been certified by the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Procuring power purchase agreement tools will be an option for industry players amid an energy pricing crisis and volatility.

Building on the successes of floating PV projects installed on lakes and dams globally, offshore installations are an emerging opportunity for developers, potentially when co-located with wind farms. George Heynes explores how the industry can move beyond pilot projects to large-scale, commercially viable installations, detailing the challenges and opportunities ahead.