Here are some noteworthy cleantech announcements of the day from around the world:

Union Power Minister R K Singh interacted with the renewable energy developers and government representatives on the draft Policy on Energy Storage Systems (ESS). Singh informed that energy storage would be an integral part of the power system under the Electricity Act. Setting up standalone ESS may be made as a delicensed activity. Singh also stated that the curtailment of renewable energy will be penalized under the provisions of the Act. As per the proposed policy, ESS developers will be granted Inter-State Transmission System connectivity under General Network Access (GNA), allowing them to sell or purchase power from any part of the country. The energy storage capacity included with the round-the-clock (RTC) renewable energy project will be considered for the storage portion for Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO). Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) may also be issued for storage. DISCOMs can set up storage projects, procure storage capacity, lease storage space from public or private developers. Any sale of electricity from storage or sale or lease of storage space may be through open competitive bidding or power exchanges. The policy proposes to waive the transmission costs for renewable when charging the storage and selling the stored renewables.

Abu-Dhabi-based renewable energy company Masdar and solar investment company W Solar Investment have set up a joint venture (JV) to develop renewable energy projects. The new company, MW Energy Limited, will act as a development platform, focusing initially on a pre-identified pipeline of projects while also exploring new opportunities under the guidance of both owners. The JVC will initially develop pre-identified projects in Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region, including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Georgia. The total capacity of these pre-identified projects is more than 8 GW.

PV module manufacturer Talesun Solar entered into a 250 MW PV module supply agreement with Indian renewable energy developer Clean Solar Power. According to the agreement terms, Talesun Solar will supply its BIPRO series bifacial modules based on 10-busbar half-cut cell technology that maintains first-year degradation at less than 2% and linear attenuation at no more than 0.45%. The 250 MW modules will be deployed in Clean Solar Power’s ground-mounted solar power project in India’s Rajasthan state.

UK law firm DLA Piper inked a corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) with UK renewable energy investor and asset manager NextEnergy Group to facilitate the construction of a 13 MW solar park in Southwest England. Power under the arrangement will be sourced from a new grid-connected solar park that NextEra will build in Somerset. The generated electricity will be supplied to DLA Piper’s 15 European and UK offices and will meet or exceed the power demand of the sites. Environmental credits from the project that exceed the law firm’s direct power needs will be applied to its value chain to reduce the carbon footprint of its indirect emissions.

Keppel Infrastructure Holdings signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Thai renewables developer Impact Electrons Siam Co and Chinese Greentech company Envision Group to provide low-carbon electricity, storage, and intermittency management solutions in the ASEAN region. According to the announcement, the three parties will leverage IES’ exclusive rights to develop the 1,000-MW expansion of the 600-MW Monsoon wind farm in Laos. Targeted to reach commercial operations by 2025, the Monsoon project will offset over 90 million tons of CO2 throughout its lifetime. The trio envisages taking on other renewable energy projects in Laos, including solar and biomass. IES has more than 1,900 MW of wind and solar assets in development and operation in Thailand, Japan, Laos, and Vietnam.

Image credit: Ysc usc, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons