Finance

It turns out the cash element of the HK$54.9 billion ‘cash and stock replacement’ plan to privatize Hanergy’s Hong Kong listed thin film division amounts to around HK$0. Thin Film shareholders face a Hobson’s Choice between a convoluted scheme laced with uncertainties or writing off their stock.

The manufacturer endured a rollercoaster ride in 2018, as China’s 5/31 policy decision saw prices plunge before staging a partial recovery. But the Wuhu-based company saw an uplift in its development business and is forging ahead with production expansion amid bullish predictions for the future of PV.

Portugal’s government has approved its 2018-2027 plan to strengthen its grid to integrate large volumes of renewable energy. Environment minister João Matos Fernandes has also revealed the solar auction planned for next summer will offer around 1.75 GW of capacity.

The oldest solar organization in the world, the International Solar Energy Society, dates back to 1954. President David Renné tells pv magazine about India’s solar dreams, the next best thing in solar technology and what renewables hold for the world’s future.

After receiving its cheapest bids for large-scale solar under a public tender a week ago, the Canadian province of Alberta is now ready to host two unsubsidized solar parks with a combined capacity of 57 MW. The developer, German renewable energy company Innogy, is in talks with local off-takers about signing a PPA.

While solar is lauded as a cheap energy resource in OECD countries, the cost of financing PV projects in developing nations has impeded progress. Development banks and the Clean Technology Fund they finance have played a key role in providing access to cheap financing for clean energy projects in many markets.

Catalan independence protests notwithstanding, the Spanish government’s Council of Ministers is today set to approve “three essential pillars” of its climate change policy: the preliminary draft of the Climate Change Law, the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 and the Fair Transition Strategy, to “allow Spain to have a stable, predictable and accurate framework for the decarbonization of its economy by 2050”. The measures, said president Pedro Sánchez, could generate 300,000 jobs.

The thin film PV maker reported solid year-end 2018 results, with future bookings extending out four years and the fourth of five Series 6 factories already online.

That was the one of the main conclusions reached among 400 attendees at the Solar plants in Spain: development, financing and energy future conference, organized by Soltec and PV association UNEF in Madrid this week.

Details are few at this stage, with a site for the big project still to be selected, although the Bangladeshi government has confirmed the tariff for electricity produced by the plant will be $0.095/kWh.