Solar Markets & Finance News

The rising solar appetites of global investors so far in 2019 have put the industry on course to reach full-year financing volumes unseen since 2017, according to Mercom.

US assistant secretary of state for energy Francis Fannon says Indian solar developers should put quality, service and diplomacy above one-time expenditure.

Although the Wiki-solar website ranking only gives a snapshot of PV project engineering, procurement and construction contracts outside China, it is nevertheless a useful indicator of the changing shape of the global solar market.

The decreasing costs of solar and wind energy could generate $71 billion in stranded coal assets in Japan by 2025, according to a new report from the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a financial think tank, and the University of Tokyo. Offshore wind power will be cheaper than coal in Japan by 2022, new solar cheaper by 2023, and onshore wind less expensive by 2025.

Total corporate funding in the solar sector (including venture capital/private equity, public market, and debt financing) for the first nine months of 2019 was up with $9 billion raised, compared to $6.7 billion in for the same time period in 2018, a 34% increase year-over-year.

The final average price for power generated by solar systems with a capacity of 100-500 kW came in at €97.48/MWh. The price for 500 kW-8 MW installations was €86.54/MWh. Only the latter category saw a fall in price compared to the previous commercial solar tender.

Fundraising activity for solar leaped in the July-to-September period to provide healthy quarterly and year-so-far comparisons on 2018.

X-Elio has enlisted a Portuguese oil and gas group as offtaker to a large-scale solar pipeline in Spain, adding to the country’s bustling PV power purchase agreement (PPA) scene.

Japan risks saddling its citizens with an inefficient, economically obsolete power fleet if it doesn’t rethink its current plans for a large-scale roll-out of new coal, experts have warned.

U.S. manufacturers First Solar and SunPower could be among the winners following the announcement that the Trump administration will impose a 25% tariff on bifacial panels, although analysts warned that the new tariffs could be an overall negative for the industry.

Uzbek utility Uzbekenergo had received 23 offers for the 100 MW tendered solar plant. Two more solar tenders, with capacities of 400 MW and 500 MW, respectively, will be launched in the near future.

A World Bank presentation in London drew an encouraging picture for the Nigerian market by explaining why the mini grid segment will take off in the next 12 months.

Recent investments into 11 GW of new coal generation capacity may result in reduced operating cashflows of $71 billion. That will occur, according to a report from the Carbon Tracker Institute, because solar and wind will become cheaper than coal in Japan by 2025 at the latest, despite high renewable energy costs at present.

Solar’s embrace of subsidy-free models could push it in greater numbers towards owners with the experience to navigate power price swings, according to Wood Mackenzie.

The US government has extended its solar import tariffs to bifacial modules, in a policy u-turn set to partially redraw the global trade flows of the fast maturing technology.