Meanwhile, the US Department of the Interior (DOI) has announced the end of special treatment for “unreliable” energy sources such as wind.

The projects will be developed by Bundelkhand Saur Urja, its joint venture with the Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency, as four 300 MW subprojects and will have to be commissioned within 18 months from the effective date of the signing of the power purchase agreement (PPA). The minimum bid capacity is 300 MW and the maximum capacity is 600 MW.

Global primary energy demand is set to rise from 308 million barrels of oil equivalent (mboe/d) in 2024 to 378 mboe/d in 2050.

The JV plans to develop the renewable projects (solar, wind, hybrid, floating solar, BESS, pumped-storage hydropower) in phases, with an initial capacity of 500 MW to ramp up to 2 GW, and to eventually scale up to 5 GW.

The Vietnamese Government has approved Vietnam’s revised National Electricity Development Plan for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050 (PDP8), which now integrates the development of nuclear energy.

By 2050, Vietnam is targeting as much as 230 gigawatts of wind and 296 gigawatts of solar.

EU countries are expected to add 89 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity in 2025, including 70GW of solar and 19GW of wind, according to Commission projections shared with Reuters. The projections are based on industry data.

The growth of renewable power generation - including wind, hydro and solar - in the global electricity mix in 2024 beat the previous year's 30% record

China has announced the start of construction on three offshore wind projects totalling 3 GW off the coast of the Guangdong Province, southern China, namely the Fanshi-1, Qingzhou-5 and Qingzhou-7 projects.

Asia more than doubled its installed solar capacity, with 327 GW added in 2024, including 85% (278 GW) in China and 10% (24.5 GW) in India; in addition, over 38 GW of solar capacity was installed in the United States, while Brazil and Germany each added over 15 GW.

India aims to achieve 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based energy capacity by 2030, with an intermediate target of 358 GW at the end of 2026.

The values of the successful bids range from €6.93c/kWh to the maximum permissible value of €7.35c/kWh. The average price stood at €7.15c/kWh, compared to €7.33c/kWh in the previous round.

The UK awarded significantly more capacity in this CfD round than in the previous. In 2023, the UK awarded only 3.7 GW of renewable capacity, including 1.9 GW of solar capacity and 1.5 GW of onshore wind.

The first agreement was signed between Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity and a consortium of the UAE’s TAQA and France’s Voltalia for the development of a 3.2 GW renewable energy project, which will feature 2.1 GW of solar and 1.1 GW of wind capacity. The project would be located around 130 kilometers south-east of Cairo, near the 545 MW Zarafana wind project, and could be commissioned by 2028.

The independent DEFRs do not require the availability of surplus renewable electricity. In fact, the independent DEFRs would not require the existence of intermittent renewable generation to support a reliable grid. They effectively render the renewable generators redundant; and, redundancy is expensive.