Finance

Minister of the Ecological and Inclusive Transition Elisabeth Borne told a teleconference of renewables representatives the results of a recent slew of clean energy tenders which allocated 1.7 GW of generation capacity and also revealed new measures being taken to support the industry.

pv magazine rounds up the latest Covid-19-related stories likely to affect the world of solar and energy storage.

The Dutch government is planning to reduce tariffs by 9% annually from 2023 to 2030. The plan should still ensure a reasonable payback time for homeowners willing to go solar, according to the authorities.

A Solargiga subsidiary has handed over $2.5 million to almost double its stake in a 1.2 GW capacity module manufacturing business set up in June by investors which include the local government.

Investors in debt-saddled PV developer GCL New Energy will have to wait at least another month before a vote on a proposed project sale to a Chinese state-owned entity which would bring benefits of $526 million.

The Middle Eastern kingdom has ordered the shutdown of solar wheeling facilities which use the grid to connect to energy offtakers. The move has come in response to tumbling electricity demand after the nation halted all non-essential industries as it tries to limit the spread of Covid-19.

The board of bailed-out Singyes Solar has bought back $18.4 million worth of notes issued in Singapore in late December and also hoovered up $240,000 worth which were unclaimed in the fundraising round.

The economic fallout of the Covid-19 outbreak is yet to be determined but as legislators scramble to establish fiscal support for the EU it is becoming clear the suits in Brussels are not prepared to scrap their hard-won Green Deal plan. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The company has warned shareholders about the potential affect of the virus on its operations in the first half of the year but said Chinese operations had almost returned to normal.

From playing a key role in facilitating the scaling of the solar sector, to opening new markets and enabling grid and energy storage technologies, multilateral financial institutions have been an important part of the ongoing global energy transition. And as Felicia Jackson writes from London, with the expansion of “green banks” and clean-energy lending, the role of these institutions is only set to expand.