Cambodia: New solar farm hooks into national grid
A 60MW solar power farm in Kampong Chhnang province was connected to the national grid last weekend, bringing the Kingdom’s total solar-power generation to 150MW, Ministry of Mines and Energy spokesman Victor Jona said on Sunday. The project, located in Taing Krasaing commune’s Romeas village in Teuk Phos district, is developed by SchneiTec Renewable Co Ltd, a joint venture between Chinese and local partners. There are two other operational solar power farms in the Kingdom – one in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet town with a 10MW capacity, and another in Kampong Speu province powering 80MW.
Vietnam finally unveils new FITs for large-scale, rooftop, floating PV
The Vietnamese government has set new feed-in tariff (FIT) rates for utility-scale, rooftop and floating solar installations. The new purchase price for electricity generated by ground-mounted PV plants is $0.0709/kWh over a period of 20 years, and $0.0838/kWh for rooftop PV arrays. The government will also offer a FIT rate of $0.0769/kWh for floating solar projects, according to Decision 13/2020/QD-TTg, which was issued by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Monday. PV developers will only qualify for the new rates if they put their projects into commercial operation by Dec. 31, 2020. All other projects will be subject to price determination through a competitive bidding process, state-run utility EVN said in an online statement.
Majuperak signs JV for renewable energy project
Majuperak Holdings Bhd’s unit Majuperak Energy Resources Sdn Bhd is teaming up with United Solar Energy (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd to venture into the solar photovoltaic generating system project using the net energy metering scheme in Perak. According to the group, the parties have agreed that upon securing its first supply agreement of renewable energy contract, a special purpose vehicle will be incorporated to execute the contract as well as any others in the future.
Malaysian senator builds solar-powered buggy while under home quarantine for COVID-19
Stuck in a 14-day home quarantine, rural empowerment activist Adrian Banie Lasimbang decided to take advantage of the enforced isolation and come up with a working prototype of a solar-powered, electric buggy in the past two weeks. Hardware stores were initially closed during the MCO, but Mr Lasimbang has a stockpile of leftover materials in the workshop, from solar panels to steel tubing for the vehicle frame. Building the frame was not difficult, he said. Installing the solar panels, integrating the electrical power system with the drive system, a 5.3 horsepower direct current (DC) motor, and making sure everything ran, took up most of the quarantine period. The steering system was salvaged from an old Proton Wira, although Mr Lasimbang had to customise it to fit the much shorter buggy frame.
