Finance

The Asian Renewable Energy Hub’s generation capacity has been boosted from 9 GW to 11 GW, as Macquarie Group has pledged to invest in the project that aims to export power to South East Asia, as well as supply big miners and green hydrogen projects in the Pilbara region, Western Australia.

Announcing its participation at the FT Climate Finance Summit in London, the bank says that through targeted financial commitments, increasing competition and progressive policy changes, prices for renewable energy resources have come down to US$0.025/ kWh in Egypt and Jordan, for example. The bank calls for a change in investment practices to further this development.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a new report on different ways global warming can be kept within the 1.5°C limit. The panel seeks to inform policymakers before the upcoming COP24 in Poland this December. Resulting from their analysis, the 91 authors state that drastic action and significant investments are needed. Such climate action across all sectors would have significant positive effects on sustainable development progress, they say.

Looking at a scenario, in which the Spanish residential solar market is booming again, energy consultancy, ecoSynergies finds that the energy system could save billions, both in terms of CO2, and fuel and grid costs. Additionally, introducing the EU’s suggestion to fairly compensate prosumers for their surplus energy, would allow households to slash payback times for their solar systems by more than a half. In some cases, the amortization period could go down from 25 to seven years.

Though lauded at times as a water-saving technology, PV’s concentration in arid and remote regions, in conjunction with inefficient cleaning methods, can exacerbate water scarcity and prompt rising water tariffs for plant operators, according to a new report on Indian PV installations, published by analysts Bridge to India.

The high-efficiency PV maker has closed on SolarWorld’s Oregon factory, which will transition from SolarWorld products to SunPower’s P-type shingled modules.

China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have each listed a €500 million bond. The bond issuance of the Chinese company was made on the newly created Luxembourg Green Exchange, a platform exclusively dedicated to sustainable finance.

A new report on the financing mechanisms in the European Union (EU) and the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) regions offers lessons that link financing to electricity market design. The report also acknowledges the increasing presence of PV manufacturers in the LAC region.

While revenues have doubled year on year, Leclanché says its EBITDA is suffering from high operational expenses and one-off payments. However, the goal to post a positive EBITDA by 2020 is on track, it adds.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged that Musk’s tweets were false and misleading, and is pushing to have him barred from serving on the board of Tesla or any other public company.