Welcome back to another busy week! We are covering China's announcement regarding the subsidy in Guangdong Province, India's decision to treat COVID-19 as force majeure in the contracts, Tongwei Solar's announcement about its prices in March, and many more!

Regional Markets

China

1. Guangdong Province

The Guangzhou Development and Reform Commission has issued an announcement regarding the Subsidy Funds for Solar Power Generation Projects in 2019 (Second Batch) on February 22.

The entire amount of subsidy totals US$3.567 million (RMB 24.941 million).

The summary of the subsidy is as follows:

856 households or units are subsidized for power generation, with the subsidy of US$2.011 million (RMB 14.056 million)
31 companies are subsidized, with the subsidy of US$1.558 million (RMB 10.885 million).

2. Shanxi Province

Shanxi Nengtou Technology Co., Ltd. (“Shanxi Nengtou”) has launched a tender for a photovoltaic equipment procurement project according to its supplier framework agreement 2020.

The project is divided into 4 phases, with a total of 55 MW modules and inverters.

The tender documents can be obtained from February 24 to February 29.

3. Shaanxi Province

A tender for the Fengwan grid parity PV project at the Shaanxi Coal Dingbian New Energy Innovation Demonstration base has been launched on February 21.

The tender documents can be obtained from February 21 to February 28.

The deadline for bid submissions and releasing the auction results is at 9:00 on March 12.

India

1. India declares COVID-19 as force majeure

India’s Ministry of Finance has issued an announcement regarding the impact of the new coronavirus on the PV industry, in which COVID-19 is cited as a natural disaster, according to pv magazine. Those who miss the deadlines of the contractual obligations due to the outbreak can invoke the force majeure clauses to avoid penalties. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has also stated that this clause can be invoked within the boundary of reason.

2. India’s EESL plans to construct 1.5 GW of distributed solar power plants in 13 months

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) is building 1.5 GW of distributed solar power plants across India, which is expected to complete by the end of March in 2021. Each power plant in one location will have the capacity of 0.5 ~ 10 MW, according to The Economic Times.

USA

The Indiana Senate Utilities Committee has conducted a hearing regarding House Bill 1414 on February 27, which essentially lengthen the process to retire a legacy power generating facility in Indiana.

After removing the most controversial language on the February 27, House Bill 1414 was passed with 8-2, which now moves to the Senate.

Indiana is one of the top coal suppliers in the U.S. However, its coal industry sees the electric utilities moving towards renewable energy, as solar, wind energy and natural gas are becoming more price competitive.

Companies

1. Hangzhou Safefound Technology

Hangzhou Safefound Technology has signed a project development agreement with Laos authorities to build a floating solar power project at the Nam Ngum 1 dam reservoir.

The installed capacity of the solar project is planned to be 1.2 GW, which, upon completion, will be world’s biggest floating solar project to date.

2. TBEA

TBEA announced that Xinte Energy, a subsidiary of the company, and Urumqi's industry-leading private equity fund co-invested in the establishment of Urumqi's Xinte Energy Guidance Fund for the Strategic Emerging Industry (limited partnership) on February 22.

The purpose of the capital increase includes, but is not limited to,

the projects for improving the quality of polysilicon products
the projects for extending the supply chains of silicon-based and zirconium-based products.
repaying shareholder loans and bank loans that are related to its primary business operation
injecting working capital into the company

3. Zhongrun Solar Energy

Jiangsu Zhongrun Solar Energy Technology Development Co., Ltd. plans to invest US$1.459 billion (RMB 10.2 billion) in the construction of the Longheng New Energy Project in the Suqian Economic and Technological Development Zone. The project mainly produces high-efficiency photovoltaic cells, photovoltaic cell slices and photovoltaic modules.

After the Longheng New Energy Project is put into full production, it is estimated that its annual output will be 10 GW of photovoltaic cells, 5GW of PV cells slices, and 5GW PV modules. The annual sales is projected to reach more than US$2.145 billion (RMB 15 billion).

4.Tongwei Solar

Tongwei Solar has announced its mainstream product prices for March on February 25:

Image from Tongwei Solar

5. Panasonic & Tesla

Panasonic has announced that it is ending the solar cell partnership with Tesla on February 27. Panasonic stated it will end its solar manufacturing business in the United States at the end of May. The whole operation will be terminated by the end of September.