News

The affordable public financing packages on offer for solar rooftops are attracting developers who have clients happy to lease out roofspace without any capital outlay in order to secure cheaper power.

In January, the U.K. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy opened consultation on its solar-plus-storage proposals. To date, systems with a capacity bigger than 50 MW are classed Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.

Although the International Energy Agency’s latest renewables report forecasts impressive solar growth there is still a nagging feeling it has produced conservative estimates and the emphasis on sharing costs with grid operators is predictable.

The government of Virginia has signed a deal with local utility Dominion Energy for 345MW of solar and 75MW of onshore wind energy to power government buildings and facilities

Top French state officials have helped cut the red ribbon of a floating solar plant that is being touted as Europe’s largest, a project delivered by Paris headquartered Akuo Energy.

A bullish Brazilian PV market has marked its latest milestone this year, becoming the cheapest electricity source of an auction it was allowed to enter for the first time this month.

Germany is crippling solar’s ability to produce large volumes of ever-cheaper electricity even as it retains too-large tenders for wind that end in undersubscription, the country’s Greens have said.

Secretary Perry informed President Trump yesterday that he will resign from his position, effective later this year. Perry released a message to DOE employees stating that he had “the coolest job in the world” as Secretary of the department.

Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) is planning to be wholly powered by solar power and natural gas microgrid. For the first time in the United States, a major airport will be completely powered by its own microgrid with the use of its own on-site natural gas wells and a solar array.

Two high-profile bankruptcies this year could serve as a warning for the potential pitfalls of pay-as-you-go solar. However, Marcus Wiemann and David Lecoque of the Alliance for Rural Electrification say such business models can lead to long-term success and have a key role to play in providing power to the 1 billion people throughout the world who still live without electricity.

The Chinese e-mobility company has been hammered since Beijing’s abrupt reduction of electric vehicle subsidies in the summer. Korean outfit LG Chem’s shipment volumes have gone in the opposite direction.

Visitors to this year’s Solar Bangladesh Expo have called for the implementation of quality standards on solar imports – action which the government is currently pursuing – with one industry insider rubbishing Indian-made products.

Ukrainian energy market reforms are continuing and amid uncertainty about future auction mechanisms and prices, attendees at the SEF Kyiv sustainable energy forum again called out the government for dragging its heels on the legislation. However, there was also evident optimism at the show.

Since debuting in 2007, green bonds have raised nearly $800 billion for investment in clean energy and other sustainability projects and companies are now pegging bond interest payments to their environmental performance.

The Chinese solar manufacturer today admitted it is in talks with its lenders and strategic investors about a break up of the company after its 2018 annual accounts revealed an apparently unserviceable debt pile. Any strategic investor is likely to constitute a Chinese state-backed bail-out.