Finance

The rooftop segment maintained strong growth but utility scale PV saw a slowdown on previous months. In the first four months of 2020, newly deployed PV systems added up to 1,479.5 MW of generation capacity, compared with around 1.6 GW in the same period of last year. The nation’s cumulative PV capacity hit 50.46 GW at the end of April.

JinkoSolar has begun construction of a new 16 GW module production base in Yiwu city, Zhejiang province and Eging PV has resumed a 200 MW solar project in Qitai county in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, after securing approval from local authorities. The China National Energy Administration has confirmed the nation can add no more than 48.45 GW of solar to the grid this year.

The International Energy Agency has acknowledged dramatic falls in energy investment caused by the Covid-19 crisis but said renewables, including PV, offered an attractive proposition to investors as the dust settled, given their enticing economics and short turnaround times.

The solar plant developer, which is now based in the States, was upbeat in its first-quarter figures but balance sheet borrowings remain a concern.

The global Covid-19 crisis has had a tumultuous impact on the global economy. It has brought investment risk and purpose into sharp focus, while also bolstering sustainable finance. But what does it mean for solar? Felicia Jackson reports from London on the evolving investment landscape, with climate and social impacts becoming more prominent in financial decision making.

Cell manufacturer Aiko Solar is raising funds to increase its production capacity with 4.3 GW of new lines while Datang Corporation has inked a deal for a 1 GW desert project.

Today’s announcement indicates either the board or the listing committee of the Hong Kong exchange where the company is listed put a spanner in the works.

The Chinese-Canadian solar manufacturer reported a 41% year-over-year increase in total module shipments to 2.2 GW in the first quarter. Revenue grew by 70% to $826 million, while net profit improved significantly from $17.2 million to $110.6 million.

Minister of economic affairs and climate change, Eric Wiebes, has written to parliament to confirm grid companies do not have to pay PV system owners when their installations are disconnected from the network due to capacity issues or poor-quality voltage.

pv magazine spoke to Mark Jones, chief executive of privately-owned clean energy investment company Susgen about where the newly-launched business is looking to spend the cash pile it has allocated for big, early-stage project pipelines.