Solar Markets & Finance News

Solar PV has seen a “meteoric rise” over the past decade, with more capacity installed than any other power source, according to a new report by BloombergNEF and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Asian Development Bank-backed procurement round attracted 26 bidders for the 60 MW project, according to the development lender. The ADB says the low price secured will persuade neighboring governments to embrace auctions.

The heavily indebted developer has cashed in two eight-project portfolios for an immediate $28 million windfall but accepted the sales recognize heavy losses as it continues to try and pay down debt.

While the rest of China’s solar manufacturers take on ever more debt to expand their production lines as fast as possible, Comtec said it is ready to sell off fabs for the right money and will instead focus on project sales and lithium battery and EV business opportunities.

With the Turkish government having given Kalyon Enerji another three years to build the 500 MW facility it won a tender to construct with former partner Hanwha Q Cells, Ankara has now committed a $333 million “super incentive” to the fab.

The District Court of Dessau-Roßlau yesterday confirmed self-administered insolvency proceedings have been conducted at the German thin-film CIGS module manufacturer and a provisional administrator has been appointed.

On Wednesday, the ten Democratic presidential hopefuls discussed their environment and energy priorities during a televised town hall meeting in New York City.

US PV developer Urban Grid has closed a senior secured term loan facility for up to US$100 million with New York-based private credit manager and asset-based lender Crayhill Capital Management LP.

Australia needs to drastically overhaul its power market in order to harness and benefit from the country’s skyrocketing rooftop solar and battery market, according to the Clean Energy Council (CEC).

PEG Africa, a company offering pay-as-you-go solar to consumers and businesses in West Africa has received a $5 million investment from European Union initiative ElectriFi. The company says it has now secured more than $50 million and plans a major expansion.

A consortium of European research institutes has received €10.6 million in EU funding to establish pilot production of a high efficiency module concept developed by Swiss startup Insolight. The module combines high efficiency multijunction cells with a solar concentrator lens and has previously demonstrated 29% efficiency.

Renewables firm BayWa r.e. looks set to bolster its digital technology services offering with the acquisition of Toronto-based PowerHub.

The Hong Kong manufacturer is holding out hope a boom that is expected to start imminently will help it turnaround losses that forced it to issue a profit warning last week. Getting its new production line in Qujing up to speed will help, provided the demand materializes.

Already active through subsidiary Fenix International and start-up Engie PowerCorner, the French energy giant is expanding further by acquiring Mobisol, an off-grid systems specialist with operations in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.

The tender produced lower bids than previous rounds but again allocated less generation capacity than planned. The Japanese government initially accepted bids for a combined 589.9 MW but ended up assigning only 195.8 MW of capacity. The final average price for procured solar power was $0.1222/kWh.