Tier-1 module manufacturer Canadian Solar has announced joint venture between its wholly owned subsidiary in Israel and Menora Mivtachim, one of the country’s largest finance and insurance groups. The aim of the venture is to finance, develop, construct and own solar power projects in the Middle Eastern nation.

Globally integrated IPP Building Energy today announced the start of production at its 10 MW Tororo solar plant. Tororo is the company’s first PV project in Uganda, and among the largest built to date in eastern Africa.

Dutch headquartered construction firm Heijmans has announced plans to install noise barriers featuring integrated bifacial solar modules on a 400 meter stretch of the A50 road, close to the southeastern town of Uden.

French banking group BNP Paribas has announced a series of measures to support the energy transition, including a pledge to cease all business with companies primarily involved in shale gas, tar sands oil and Arctic exploration for oil. The group also plans to increase its total financing for renewable energy projects to €15 billion by 2020.

A team at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a type of battery which it says could store energy for long durations at a fraction of the cost of current storage technologies.

German PV equipment manufacturer Singulus has announced a reduction to its financial forecasting for the full year 2017. The company cites delays in a large-scale project for a China-based client as the primary reason for the reduction.

A team of researchers from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and Oxford University has developed a process which uses the effects of surface tension to grow highly pure perovskite crystals at centimeter scale.

German off-grid expert Mobisol has announced plans to cooperate with two energy funds managed by responsAbility, an asset manager specializing in development investments. The deal will fuel further growth for Mobisol in the off-grid pay as you go sector, initially in Tanzania.

Chinese module manufacturer Risen Energy announced that it has won the bidding to assist Cuba in the construction of a 3.9 MW PV project.

Monocrystalline PV manufacturer LONGi Solar has reached record 22.43% conversion efficiency on a PERC cell based on mass production technology. The result is confirmed in a report from China’s National Center of Supervision and Inspection in Solar PV Product Quality (CPVT).