The Spanish renewable market has been capturing headlines during the last few weeks. Following the publication, on March 31st, of the “Real Decreto 359/2017 that announced the auction of 2,000 MW extendable to up to 3,000 MW of new renewable energy installations, the government has published the Ministerial order (ETU/315/2017) and the resolutions that approve the auction procedure and rules and the call for the auction. The auction will take place on 17th May 2017 and the deadline for submittin...

PVDiagnosis by Vector Cuatro lands in the UK   With currently more than 10 GW of installed capacity, the UK has become one of the largest PV markets in the world. It is especially worth highlighting the exponential growth of the market under the Renewable Obligation (RO) scheme. The RO came into effect in 2002 in England and Wales, and Scotland, followed by Northern Ireland in 2005. It placed an obligation on UK electricity suppliers to source an increasing proportion of the electricity they sup...

Since the introduction of the Feed in Tariff scheme in July 2012, the solar PV market in Japan has evolved rapidly, growing not only in size and capacity but also expanding from a house scale typical photovoltaic installation to megasolar projects of capacities of over 200 MW in some cases. Consequently, it can be stated that Japan has developed to a mature solar PV market, with already more than 8 GW connected, and where different services are required for the already existing facilities. On to...

In early 2016, the Spanish government held an energy auction for 500 MW of wind power and 200 MW of biomass which was oversubscribed by more than five times and drew criticism for lacking a prequalification requirement to compete. Back in autumn last year, the Spanish government announced then plans to hold a new renewable energy project auction, eagerly awaited from the national industry and international players, with high expectations that the auction design would be simplified and/or conside...