Finance

Backing from the Asian Development Bank will help a 50 MW project get off the ground – and onto the water – in Chittagong, and a developer has been lined up to install solar on a stretch of the Padma river.

The EIB said supporting the battery supplier will help Europe realize its clean energy targets. The funds are earmarked for the company’s European R&D, as well as stemming ‘operational burdens’ from its growth rate. Sonnen recently made headlines by opening a factory in Australia to supply its virtual power plant in Adelaide.

The Taiwanese market research company has published its latest price trend data for PV modules, cells, wafers and silicon. Across the value chain, rising demand is causing stockpiles to dwindle and utilization rates to rise. Prices are rising in China as well as for high-efficiency products. Module prices have stabilized.

PGGM and Shell have expressed interest in acquiring sustainable energy company Eneco, a municipality owned business which wants to go private. The energy provider has installed 100 MW of PV and operates in northwest Europe.

German concern Kaco has sold its central inverter business. The German manufacturer hopes to focus on its string inverter and energy storage branches while the South Korean buyer hopes the newly acquired knowhow can improve the energy efficiency of its large-scale PV parks.

Two facilities were sold along with a 90 MW wind power plant generating the vendor around €700 million. Both solar projects were awarded 20-year PPAs in the most successful auction held by the Brazilian government, in August 2015.

Analysts have welcomed the measures ushered in by Beijing to encourage the development of PV projects without central subsidies, but with the obstacles the policy aims to address having dogged Chinese solar for years, more detail is required.

The world again saw more than $300 billion of clean energy investment in 2018, according to BloombergNEF, and although wind narrowed the gap on solar, plunging module prices skewed the figures as PV capacity additions rose 10 GW.

The thin-film manufacturer and project developer says the Chinese government’s package of measures to drive subsidy-free solar projects will ensure a proliferation of new capacity additions and consolidate the strength of big players like itself.

The funds will be used by the Argentinian government for solar and other renewable energy projects selected in the third round of the program. The guarantee package was approved by the World Bank in March.