Solar Markets & Finance News

The momentum around corporate renewable PPAs should not blind industry players from the fact the avenue remains too costly and complex for some businesses, three lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright have argued as part of a piece for PV Tech Power 20.

Australian renewables investor Lyon Group has penned an agreement with China Huadian Corporation which will see the duo co-develop and invest in power-plus-battery energy storage systems across Australia, China and other Asian markets.

Chinese solar panel maker Risen Energy has signed off on an order to provide 150MW of high-efficiency PV modules to a power station in Malaysia. This stands as the biggest module order Risen Energy has ever carried out to date both in Malaysia and from an overseas floating power station.

Europe’s second largest solar market has marked a subsidy-free boost this week, with two players joining forces to deploy a pipeline in a country where PV growth was muted for years.

Sunfinity Renewable Energy, a vertically-integrated residential, commercial and utility-scale solar power provider, has begun operations in two additional Western states — Arizona and Colorado — to expand the company’s existing footprint throughout California, Texas and Oklahoma. With the addition of Arizona, Sunfinity will now be operating in the top three states nationally for solar growth.

The offer was apparently submitted by Saudi energy giant ACWA Power, which refused to confirm the bid when asked by pv magazine. The second lowest bid – $0.0175/kWh – was reportedly submitted by a consortium formed by Emirati developer Masdar, French utility EDF and Chinese PV panel maker JinkoSolar.

After emerging as the recipient of most of the Brazilian government’s public allocation of generation capacity, the Canadian-Chinese manufacturer has secured a large share of projects in auctions held by power companies Copel and, probably, Cemig.

Selected schemes will be eligible for a feed-in premium – related to the wholesale electricity price – for 20 years. The ceiling price for the premium has been set at the equivalent of $0.0089/kWh.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the governments of New South Wales and South Australia, grid operator Ausgrid and insurer NRMA, have awarded almost AU$500,000 to e-mobility start-up Evenergi to help businesses and consumers plan for the electric vehicle revolution.

Dutch system operator TenneT has announced that it will invest €215 million (US$237 million) to accommodate 2GW of solar and wind capacity towards the country's north.

The European Union’s executive arm has approved a major ownership shake-up of Spanish developer X-Elio Energy, giving Brookfield Asset Management the green light to purchase a 20% stake from Acek Renewables alongside a 30% tranche from US infrastructure fund KKR.

Expert warnings that India will be falling short of its renewable deployment targets have sparked a strong-worded rebuke from the government, which has slammed them as “ill-founded”

Reden Investments Chile and Natixis have successfully closed senior facilities totaling US$96.4 million for an up-to-100MW portfolio of PV projects in Chile.

A report by Indian ratings agency CRISIL points to a rising rate of tender failures, an inconsistent policy approach from central and state governments and restrictive solar energy tariff caps and says India could have just 104 GW of renewables capacity by 2022.

UN money will help South African PV players underpin project revenues without the need to resort to the government, after a year when Eskom’s woes have cast doubts on the state-offtaker route.