( WORDS)
Despite the global economic slowdown caused by Covid-19, the pace of development of an independent power project (IPP) market in Uzbekistan is tangibly picking up. This month ACWA Power closed on the $750 million debt financing for the 1.5GW Syrdarya 1 CCGT project – the first large-scale Uzbek IPP financing to reach financial close – and more IPP deals (both renewables and gas-fired) look set to follow given the recent proliferation of tenders and upcoming regulatory environment streamlining.
In February the Uzbek government issued a new draft law on electric power. If approved, the new regulation will unify and replace all previous regulations and include new articles to further support renewables. And although Uzbekistan has abundant gas, its focus is as strong on renewables development as it is gas-fired. The government is looking to reduce consumption of natural gas for energy production from 16.5 to 12.1 billion cubic meters by 2030 and use gas produced domestica
Solar power has to be about quality as well as quantity
Greater dispatchability will be required from solar as it becomes increasingly mainstream worldwide, or investors could experience diminishing returns as a victim of the technology s success at bearing down on electricity prices.Ever falling solar project costs are set to flatten out around 2035, according to a new publication by Norwegian quality assurance and risk management company DNV. The More than the sun: The solar outlook report emphasizes the need for solar developers and investors to start focusing on driving up the value of the electricity generated, to avoid dwindling returns caused .
A new study from the Lappeenranta University of Technology predicts solar may even achieve a 69% share for total primary energy supply by the end of the first half of the century. In terms of price, solar
By:
Part one of this blog, published last week, can be read here.
These mistakes and how to avoid making them will be discussed in detail at the Solar Media training events, more detail on which can be found here. The dates and times of these courses are below, and Solar Power Portal readers can receive an exclusive 10% discount by using the code ‘SPP10’ at checkout.
Developing a Solar Farm by a Local Authority on Its Own Land 28th April 2021 (09:00 – 13:30 GMT)
Developing Buildings Based Solar PV by a Local Authority on Its Own Buildings and Assets 1 2th May 2021 (09:00 – 13:30 GMT)
Declaring a Climate Emergency for a Local Authority and Developing a Robust Action Plan
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam researchers have developed a novel technique for spatially controlled patterning of semiconductors with tuneable optoelectronic properties. As a proof of principle, Lukas Helmbrecht and Wim Noorduin ‘painted’ a portrait of Marie Curie in a perovskite semiconductor layer. Both researchers work at the AMOLF research institute at Amsterdam Science Park. Wim Noorduin is professor of Self-Organising Matter at the University of Amsterdam’s Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences. Lukas Helmbrecht obtained his PhD at UvA under Noorduin’s supervision. The results of their research are published this week in the journal ‘Advanced Materials’.
In the paper, Helmbrecht and Noorduin present their novel ion-exchange lithography technique that takes on the fundamental challenge of patterning semiconductor materials with different properties in a single film. This patterning is essential for the development of next‐generation (opto)electronic