If Portugal wants to achieve its target of 9GW of installed capacity ahead of schedule by 2026 rather than by the end of the century, it will need to address one of the main obstacles it currently faces: licensing issues.     At this week's European Large Solar Conference, team members discussed the future of the Portuguese solar market, which has undergone some regulatory improvements, including less stringent environmental assessments for projects under 100 hectares to help accelerate the deployment of solar photovoltaic, but more work needs to be done.     "We need faster and smoother licensing," said Pedro Pereira, General Manager of Eurowind Energy in Southern Europe. Pedro Amaral Jorge, CEO of the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association (APREN), said that in 2018, Portugal had only 5 GW of application capacity waiting for licensing. By the end of 2020, this number has sharply increased to 250GW.     In addition, Amaral Jorge stated that Portugal's National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), released in 2019, may revise its goal to increase the installed capacity of solar photovoltaic from the current 9 GW to 15-20 GW by 2030.     Jo ã o Amaral, Chief Technology Officer and Country Manager for Portugal at Voltalia, added that as the demand for newer renewable energy applications increases, the government needs to provide licenses for these new projects and withdraw capacity projects that have not yet been implemented.     At the end of 2022, the installed capacity of solar photovoltaic in Portugal was 2.6GW, with an increase of 446MW in large public projects and 385MW in small and medium-sized projects in the same year alone. As shown in the figure below, by the end of July, Portugal had exceeded the full year figure for 2021. Miguel Lobo, Portugal's national head of Lightsource BP, said that so far, Portugal needs to double its installation rate to achieve the target of 9GW of solar photovoltaic installed capacity by 2026. This plan is meaningful for a country with the best solar radiation in Europe. Compared to other European markets, Portugal's production capacity has increased by 50%.     Most panel members believe that licensing is one of the main issues currently facing the Portuguese market, while insufficient grid capacity is another major bottleneck for Portugal to achieve ambitious renewable energy growth by 2030.     Renato Madureira, Country Manager of FF Ventures Portugal, said, "The main problem we are facing is a lack of capacity, and we do not have the capacity to connect to the grid." This issue not only affects newer projects, but also projects signed in previous tenders.     For old projects that are already waiting to be connected to the grid, in order for Portugal to achieve its goal of new renewable energy capacity by the end of this century, it is necessary to consolidate the grid and do more work.     Amaral add...

A solar system the size of two football pitches on Bella Center's roof will in future cover a third of Bella Center's electricity consumption. The 550W solar panel will be the largest of its kind in Zealand. Zealand's largest roof-integrated solar system now sees the light of day on top of the Bella Center in Copenhagen. When all solar cells are connected, the on grid solar system has a capacity of 2.79 MW. This means that the solar cells can produce green energy equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 537 households with two adults and two children. The solar cells are part of the sustainability strategy of Bellagroup, which owns Bella Center, and which has long worked with initiatives that can reduce energy consumption in the group's hotels and venues. Earlier this year, the new Bella Arena received certification for being sustainable construction in international gold class. Now you take the next step and start producing the energy yourself. "It is quite obvious to utilize the many flat roofs in the big cities to create green energy, and there are not many people who have as large a roof area as we do. We work purposefully with sustainability and responsibility across all our hotels and venues as part of our "responsible hospitality" strategy. We are therefore very excited that we can now utilize the roof's potential to generate renewable energy for the Bella Center and AC Hotel Bella Sky," says Christian Folden Lund, CEO of Bellagroup. Leading the way in the development of responsible hospitality The Bella Center is already one of Europe's most ambitious convention centers when it comes to integrating climate and environmental considerations and social sustainability into production. With the solar cells, Bella Center takes another step in the green direction with its own production of green electricity corresponding to just over a third of the center's electricity consumption in 2021. "The climate footprint is an important parameter when our customers have to choose where their large international conferences will take place. Copenhagen is already known as a green choice, and we would like to expand that position. As Northern Europe's largest conference venue, we would like to be at the forefront of the development of future responsible hospitality. We are taking a huge step with the new solar cell system, but we are constantly looking at how we can keep improving," says Christian Folden Lund. Bellagroup is also replacing 5,500 light sources at AC Hotel Bella Sky with LED lighting in 2023. Together with the establishment of the new solar cell system, it reduces Bellagroup's Co2 emissions by more than 400 tonnes annually. Most ambitious solar project in Zealand It is the company NRGreen that is establishing the new solar cell system on the roof of the Bella Center. It will cover an area of 16,000 m2, which is comparable to two large football pitches. And nothing like it has been seen in Zealand. "It is the largest and most am...

China’s PV industry’s production value last year reached RMB1.4 trillion (US$203.5 billion), according to a report published by China’s ministry of industry and information technology. The report Operation of the PV Manufacturing Industry in China in 2022 stated that the output in all links of China’s PV industry chain achieved a record high, where polysilicon, silicon wafers, cells and solar panels reached 827,000 tons, 357GW, 318GW and 288.7GW, respectively, equivalent to a year-on-year growth of more than 55%. According to Bohua Wang, honorary president of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, there were 87.41GW of newly installed capacity in China last year, including distributed installation capacity of 51.11GW, an increase of 74%. New centralised installments reached 36.3GW, an increase of 41.8%. Wang added that China’s PV export reached US$51.2 billion, the first time exceeding US$50 billion. Of this amount, solar modules accounted for US$42.36 billion, silicon wafers US$5.07 billion and cells US$3.82 billion. Looking forward, the China Photovoltaic Association added that new PV installations would reach 280-330GW globally, while about 95GW-120GW will come from China.

In 2022, Germany added 7.18GW of solar energy system, 2.14GW of onshore wind and 342MW of offshore wind. Net additions were stronger than in 2021, but still far below the pace needed to meet the 2030 renewable energy targets. According to data released by the Federal Network Agency, by the end of 2022, Germany will have 66.49GW of solar system capacity in operation. In order to achieve the target of 215GW in 2030, Germany needs to install 1.54GW per month on average. More than half of the new capacity, around 4.4GW, came from rooftop projects and 746.7MW from unsubsidized ground-mounted solar panels. Bavaria was once again the leader in new solar capacity, adding 2.09GW for all of 2022, bringing its total to 18.3GW at the end of the year. The North Rhine-Westphalia state came second with 899.2MW of net installed capacity, followed by Brandenburg with 794.1MW. In terms of onshore wind power, Germany's operating capacity by the end of the year was 58.2GW, and December witnessed the highest monthly growth rate of 309MW in the year. Despite an acceleration by the end of 2022, the rate of expansion would have to increase to an average of 591MW per month, so that by the end of the decade Germany's onshore wind turbines would reach 115GW. In terms of offshore wind power, as many as 38 offshore wind turbines (totaling 342MW) were integrated into the German grid last year, bringing Germany's wind power capacity in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to 8.12GW.

Construction of the new energy base project in the north-central Ordos of the Kubuqi Desert, built by the China Three Gorges Corporation and the Inner Mongolia Energy Group, started construction in Dalate Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. The project is the world's largest wind power solar panel base project developed and constructed in desert, Gobi, and desert areas, and it is also the first 10-million-kilowatt new energy large base project in my country to start construction. The planned total investment of the Kubuqi base project is over 80 billion yuan, with a total installed capacity of 16 million kilowatts, including 8 million kilowatts of photovoltaics and 4 million kilowatts of wind power, and supporting reconstruction and expansion of advanced and high-efficiency coal power installed capacity of 4 million kilowatts. The pilot project announced this time is a 1 million-kilowatt solar panel power generation project, and corresponding energy storage facilities will be configured and constructed. After the project is fully completed, it will be able to transmit about 40 billion kWh of electricity to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region each year, of which clean energy will account for more than 50%, which is equivalent to saving about 6 million tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 16 million tons. Lei Mingshan, Chairman and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of China Three Gorges Corporation, said that the Kubuqi base project has a large scale, high technical difficulty, and great innovation significance. It provides important demonstration application scenarios for new technologies, new mechanisms, new models, and new formats in the new solar energy system.  During the construction of the Kubuqi base project, we will continue to explore and carry out ecosystem protection and restoration, and build a circular development model that integrates new energy power generation, ecotourism, and desert control. The Kubuqi Desert is located in the northern part of the Ordos Plateau in Inner Mongolia and is the seventh largest desert in China. In 2014, the Kubuqi Desert was identified by the United Nations Environment Program as a "Global Desert Eco-Economy Demonstration Area". Kubuqi desert governance has also become a green business card for China. On the same day, the China Three Gorges Corporation announced the intensive start of 27 new energy and Yangtze River protection projects, and the Kubuqi base project is one of them. The planned total investment of these start-up projects is 109.055 billion yuan, with a total installed capacity of 19.6368 million kilowatts, all of which are clean energy and ecological environmental protection projects.

According to a new report by the IEA-PVPS, by the end of 2021, the cumulative installed capacity of solar photovoltaics in Japan will reach 78.4GW. By the end of 2023, the cumulative capacity of the Japanese market may reach 90GW. Among all new installed capacity this year, large-scale solar energy projects are 2.5GW-3GW, and the rest are rooftop solar panel, especially industrial and commercial power generation systems. The reasons for the low realization rate of large-scale projects include: 1. There is no mandatory project completion timetable; 2. The uncertainty of future FIT and developers expect the system cost to continue to decline; 3. Obtaining land use rights and converting agricultural land to industrial land 4. Due to the limited capacity of the grid, the resistance of the grid company increases. Analysts predict that Japan's new photovoltaic capacity will be around 5GW-6GW in 2022 and 2023, and the market share between centralized and distributed projects will not change significantly. According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, recently the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (JPEA) are jointly formulating new rules to support the development of rooftop solar energy system in the Japanese capital. The authorities plan to introduce new mandatory PV requirements for new buildings and dwellings from 2025. The city government first announced plans for a mandatory solar requirement in early September this year. Currently, the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly is still discussing the plans. The new rules, if approved, could apply to new dwellings with a roof area of more than 20 square meters and buildings with a total roof area of less than 2,000 square meters. The new rules could also require businesses to install solar panels on 30 percent of their roof area. Some parts of Tokyo may face a requirement that 85% of their roofs be covered with photovoltaics.

On November 21, the flexible support part of the Yingjiang Agricultural Photovoltaic Power Generation Project of China Energy Group Yunnan Company entered the component installation stage. The project is one of the key new energy development projects in Yunnan Province in 2022. It is located in Yingjiang County, Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, with a total installed capacity of 150 MW and an area of 3427 mu. A mixed arrangement of fixed brackets and flexible brackets is adopted, among which the square array of flexible brackets exceeds 100 MW, which is the largest single-scale project among solar panel projects constructed with flexible brackets in Southwest China. The flexible support is to install solar panels on rows of steel cables, and the two ends of the steel cables are supported by rigid structures. Compared with the traditional fixed support, the flexible support can span complex terrain such as gullies, steep slopes, streams, etc., and can effectively improve the land utilization rate. It has the advantages of large span, high headroom, and good crack resistance. It meets the needs of agriculture and light complementarity. The successful practice of the project provides experience accumulation and technical reference for the later complex terrain photovoltaic projects to adopt flexible support construction.

On the evening of November 20, the 2022 Qatar World Cup kicked off. The previous World Cup songs are sung again, the mascots are reappeared, and the feelings are full! Although the Chinese men's football team is missing on the field, Chinese elements are still active in all aspects of the game. In the field of new energy power generation in Qatar, Chinese manufacturing is also the main force. Among them, the eye-catching project is the 800MW solar energy power station in Alcazar, Qatar, which can meet 10% of the country's peak power demand and greatly increase the proportion of renewable energy in Qatar's energy consumption. It not only provides power guarantee for the World Cup, but also An important move for Qatar to fulfill its commitment to host a "Green World Cup". The power station is located in the desert 80 kilometers west of Doha, the capital of Qatar. The park covers an area of ​​10 square kilometers, which is equivalent to about 1,400 football fields. More than 2 million solar panels have been installed to make use of the unique light and heat resources in this area for electricity production. It is the first non-fossil fuel power station in Qatar, and is currently the third largest single photovoltaic power generation project in the world, as well as the world's largest photovoltaic project using tracking systems and bifacial solar panels. It is reported that the Alcazar solar energy system project can provide Qatar with about 1.8 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity every year, which can meet the annual electricity consumption of about 300,000 households and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 900,000 tons per year. The project has far-reaching significance in Qatar and the entire Middle East region, and can meet more than 10% of Qatar's peak power demand. Khabir, Minister of State for Energy Affairs of Qatar, pointed out at the commissioning ceremony last month that after being connected to the grid, the project will provide Qatar with energy support at competitive electricity prices, and improve energy efficiency through diversification of power sources. The proportion of renewable energy utilization is also conducive to the realization of national economic diversification. According to public information, the total investment of the Alcazar photovoltaic project is 417 million US dollars. The EPC of the power station is generally contracted by PowerChina Guizhou Engineering Co., Ltd., and the project will start construction in July 2020. This project is also the world's largest photovoltaic project that uses tracking systems and bifacial modules. All the modules use LONGi's "Hi-MO 4" bifacial solar panels, and Sungrow provides a complete set of 1500V solar inverter solutions. Li Jun, the on-site construction manager of PowerChina Project, said: "This project provides Qatar with a greener and more stable power supply. The 800 MW photovoltaic area of ​​this project all uses Chinese equipment, which accounts for more than ...