Finance

The world’s number one poly maker claims the worst of the fall-out after Beijing’s policy change has already occurred, and will press ahead with plans to expand production capacity – but its development business may need to find new sources of funding.

The Qatar-based investment firm has agreed to acquire a 75% stake in Netherlands-based Zon Exploitatie Nederland Holding B.V. (ZEN). The Dutch company owns a PV plant porftfolio of around 96 MW.

Something interesting is happening in the PV market. We’re not just seeing an emergence of corporate power purchase agreements (cPPAs) in parity geographies – but also compelling innovation in the commercial models which underpin them. Despite the challenges of offtaker risk, contract duration, and assorted other contractual oddities when financing renewable energy projects in this way, leading lenders are just about getting used to the idea of private offtake agreements. But are they ready for other commercial-disrupters like blockchain; ‘power and flexibility agreements’; pooling of medium-sized energy suppliers; and PV-storage hybrid projects?

The decision to tax the ‘service’ provided to solar developers at the full rate comes days after India’s Supreme Court upheld the federal government’s imposition of a 25% safeguarding duty on Chinese and Malaysian panels.

Chinese industrial group, Roshow Technology has revealed plans to purchase a 92.3% stake in Shunyu Jieneng Keji, a PV project developer, in an asset restructuring deal valued at CNY 1.5 billion ($218.4 million).

Hyderabad-based renewable energy major, Greenko Group has abandoned plans to buy AT Capital-backed Orange Renewable.

Japanese electronics giant, Sony has become the latest major organization to commit to a 100% renewable energy target for all of its operations. The company has joined the RE100, a global NGO initiative promoting renewable energy, and plans to reach its target by 2040.

Solar DAO, a digital, autonomous, closed-end, utility-scale PV project investment fund, has announced its partnership with Powerchain, decentralized platform for energy storage, which allows prosumers to buy, store and sell energy.

Canadian Solar Inc. says it has entered into agreements with Dr. Shawn Qu and several unidentified potential equity partners regarding the plans to take the manufacturer private. It has also sold 30 MW worth of PV plants to its infrastructure fund in Japan.

Today, Panda Green Energy Group Limited posted its results for the first half of the business year 2018. The company made itself a name when it started constructing Panda-shaped solar parks in 2017.