Page 10 - AsiaElec Week 10

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Belectric completes solar commissioning at India’s’ Pavagada solar park
INDIA
INNOGY-OWNED green developer Belec- tric has completed commissioning at Fortum’s 250MW solar array at the Pavagada solar park in the Indian state of Karnataka, its largest solar project so far.
Belectric built the facility, which is one of India’s largest utility-scale and grid-connected solar projects, for owner Finnish utility Fortum. It will also now operate the plant.
“India is one of the largest PV markets in the world and also one of the most challenging. That’s why we are particularly proud that we have delivered a new 250MW AC solar plant for our customer Fortum on time and to German quality standards,” said Ingo Alphéus, chief executive of Belectric Solar & Battery.
Belectric carried out the construction and commissioning work and will provide operation and maintenance services (O&M) to the plant.
“The project in Karnataka is our largest pro- ject in India to date. After the successful com- pletion of the construction and commissioning phase, we are pleased that we, as the plant’s oper- ator, can now contribute to an environmentally friendly power supply in India,” said Jitendra Singh, managing director of Belectric Photovol- taic India.
The Pavagada solar park now features 2,050MW of solar capacity, with a number of foreign and Indian owners on site such as
Parampujya Solar Energy, Fortum, ACME Solar Holdings and Tata Power Renewable Energy.
The commissioning means that Belectric has now built more than 750MW in solar capacity in India since 2009 and is confident of reaching 1GW in the country.
In 2018, Belectric completed a 26-MW roof- top solar project for Arvind, while in 2019 it built a 10-MW rooftop system at Apollo Tyres’ factory.
Both projects were developed by Singa- pore-based Cleantech Solar and are among the largest rooftop solar projects in Asia.
India had 31,696MW of grid-connected solar capacity in November 2019, according to government figures, while 17,998MW was under construction and tenders for another 31,696MW had been issued by that date.
The government aims to have 100,000MW of on-grid solar by 2022. The government’s National Solar Mission is a key component of efforts to provide universal access to power.
Coal’s use as a generation fuel actually fell by 3% in 2019, according to data from UK think- tank Ember, while power demand grew by only 0.8% as economic growth dipped to 4.8%, the lowest since 2008.
Solar and wind’s share grew to 8%, with solar output growing by 27% and wind 5%. A total of 12GW of solar capacity was added in 2019.™
Japan opens world’s largest green hydrogen plant
JAPAN
JAPAN has opened a pioneering 20MW green hydrogen production plant as the government drives renewables development in a bid to diver- sify the energy sector away from fossil fuels.
The $189mn Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R) will use 20MW of solar panels to produce up to 1,200 cubic metres per hour of hydrogen by using solar power to decompose water by electrolysis.
The project is backed by the government’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Devel- opment Organisation, as well as Toshiba, Tohoku Electric Power and natural gas distrib- utor Iwatani.
The developers claim that it is the largest electrolyser yet to produce hydrogen from clean
power sources.
The plant was opened by Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe, and has gained attention as it is located in the town of Namie, north of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) where the 2011 nuclear disaster took place.
The 20MW of solar panels will feed into a solar-powered hydrogen production station that can produce enough gas to fill 560 fuel cell vehicles per day. The hydrogen can also be used to power stationary fuel cell systems in Fukus- hima Prefecture, the Tokyo Metropolitan Area and other regions.
The plant’s output will be used at the Olym- pic Games, especially by new hydrogen-powered Mirai cars manufactured by Toyota.
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