News

One of the largest solar projects to date in Colombia has cleared a key planning hurdle as president Iván Duque promised clean energy leadership at this week’s UN summit.

Scatec Solar has raised NOK1.32 billion (US$146 million) in a private placement for its global solar pipeline.

Solarpack has witnessed gains across several financial indicators so far this year, after progress across various construction contracts in Europe and South America.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Dutch development bank FMO have agreed to finance the construction and operation of a duo of Kenyan solar plants that have a combined capacity of 80MW.

Bifacial PV stands on the edge of a boom across the world’s four corners as cost improvements and geopolitics strengthen the case for the budding technology, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Microsoft has purchased 85MW of solar energy from Engie as part of a broader agreement covering 230MW of clean energy generated by the developer's Texas operations.

Lightsource BP has secured US$140 million financing for a portfolio of seven utility-scale PV projects across the US.

The Chinese module giant has committed to sourcing 70% of its energy from renewables by 2023 and all of it by 2025. If serious, that could represent confidence in the amount of new renewable energy generation capacity to come online in China given the company’s huge production capacity expansion plans.

Risen Energy has announced a 148 MW module order will be completed this month as the Ningbo-based company expects to ship almost 1 GW of product to the country this year.

The advent of permitting restrictions on wind power projects has opened the door for PV in the pending auction for renewable generation facilities with a capacity of more than 1 MW. Wind power dominates Polish clean energy and no solar projects were successful in last year’s exercise.

The thin-film manufacturer and Chinese carmaker Joylong Automobile applied thin film cells to the roof of a small commercial vehicle which was tested for a month. Hanergy says its K-Car could offer an effective daily range of 50-100km without charging.

The Paraná-based energy provider will buy renewable energy under a 15-year power purchase agreement. The auction’s winners and final prices were not revealed.

The French development agency and the environment ministry have a €1.6 million budget to finance novel off-grid projects from companies and NGOs operating with local partners in Africa.

After the “June rush” to complete solar projects in China – as well as the commissioning rush in Vietnam, which saw higher-than-expected demand of 4 GW in the first half – the growth of the regional solar market started to slow down in July and August, before anticipated Chinese demand picks up the slack again. With unexpectedly low demand in the third quarter, module manufacturers reacted first by marginally reducing utilization rates. Cell producers then cut production after cell prices collapsed.

The Helios Infrastructure fund, a JV between Sol Systems and Nationwide, has completed the financing and construction of its first PV portfolio.