Analysts at Mercom Capital Group have tallied up corporate funding, venture capital and debt and public market investment for battery storage, smart grids and energy efficiency companies. From a financial perspective, the industry appears resilient to the Covid-19 crisis and ready to grow further.

After a weak second quarter, financial activity is back at full steam in the PV sector, says Mercom, noting strong performance across a range of metrics.

The power electronics company is offering a product which can work on and off the grid and enables the charging of dead batteries using a rooftop solar array.

With a flurry of recent announcements, the newly-launched power division of the electronics giant plans to drive hydrogen mobility in Germany and enter the commercial and industrial power market in the US.

Sustainability-linked debt financing is experiencing ever increasing popularity and the success of green bonds has driven other products linked to social performance and other sustainability criteria. The total volume of such investments to date passed the $2 trillion point this year.

A research team from Pakistan has modeled the addition of a floating PV array to an existing dam project to increase the availability of power during peak load hours.

A small-area trial of artificial intelligence and blockchain-based energy trading software demonstrated big improvements across all renewable energy performance metrics. The port authority now wants the system across all its premises.

As the bloc pushes its digital and green transition agenda, policymakers have looked at the raw materials required. Little is mined, processed or assembled in Europe at present but the European Commission has a plan…

The business intelligence firm has projected storage costs will continue their downward trajectory on the back of product and process optimization. That will favor a higher adoption rate in automotive and grid applications, the analysts say. Elsewhere, discoveries of lithium in the U.S. and the U.K. have raised hopes for lower raw material costs and more supply chain diversity.

Project delays and price changes due to fluctuating demand are disrupting the Chinese solar market. Researchers who have analyzed the situation claim that the nation’s PV industry will be back on track toward grid parity by the end of the year.