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

Hartek Solar, the rooftop solar division of the Hartek Group, has bagged a 1.8 MW rooftop solar project from packaged foods FMCG company Bikaji. The solar system will be equipped with a storage facility. It will be installed at Bikaji’s head office in the Bichhwal industrial area of Bikaner, Rajasthan. The solar system is expected to generate 2,822 MWh of clean energy while reducing 57,661 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

Tata Hitachi has partnered with Amp Energy to set up an onsite solar power project at its facility in Kharagpur, West Bengal. Amp has an operational 5 MW solar project supplying power to Tata Hitachi’s facility in Kharagpur since 2018. With this project, the company expanded its capacity to 10.5 MW. The power purchase agreement (PPA) with Amp is for 25 years and will generate 7,150 MWh of green energy while reducing 5,055 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund launched an $8.5 million grant facility to support the adoption and diversification of renewable energy solutions in Somalia and Somaliland. This is a component of the REACT Sub Saharan program that seeks to reduce poverty through a transformational increase in the use of renewable energy by off-grid households. The program targets private sector companies and microfinance institutions that are commercially active. These businesses are expected to be delivering low cost, clean energy products and services that benefit the poor in rural and peri-urban Somalia.

The Australian Government announced that it would jointly fund a new technical feasibility study into using an underground coal mine as a part of a pumped hydro energy storage scheme in New South Wales, Australia. On behalf of the government, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency will provide $995,000 in funding to Centennial Coal for a technical review and pilot trial to examine the feasibility of repurposing an underground coal mine. The New South Wales Government will also provide $4.16 million for the project as a part of its $75 million Emerging Energy Program.

Banpu Public Company Limited said that BRE Singapore, a subsidiary of Banpu NEXT, successfully achieved its commercial operation on December 16, 2020. The solar facility with 7 MW capacity is located in Fukushima prefecture, Japan. It entered into a power purchase agreement with Tohoku Electric Power for 20 years with a feed-in-tariff- of 36 Japanese Yen (~$0.35)/kWh. The project can generate enough clean energy to power 1,700 households.

Here is our previous daily news wrap-up.