Finance

Oxford-based Habitat Energy uses machine learning algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) and its own trading platform and software to maximize profits from utility scale storage facilities. A Canadian Solar statement about the arrangement, issued today, contained no financial details about the co-operation.

Nigeria and Ghana-based Starsight Energy has spent an undisclosed amount to acquire a half stake in the Kenyan subsidiary of East African peer Premier Solar Group.

Module manufacturers have once again adjusted their prices upwards. This is already the third or fourth price increase in the last six months, and there is no end in sight, writes Martin Schachinger of pvXchange. But why is it so hard to achieve long-term, sustainable development in the global solar market, at least on the part of manufacturers? Few other industries are so turbulent, with constant swings between excess supply and bottlenecks, between price collapses and price rises – and always to the breaking point of the market. Yet again, planning security is out the window.

Supply shortages and price increases slowed solar stocks in April, writes Jesse Pichel of ROTH Capital Partners. In the United States, however, new policies promise to foster growth in the second half of the year.

French energy company Total is developing the solar field near Samarkand, which will sell power to National Electric Networks of Uzbekistan under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

The near-$80 million handed over to a contractor in 2019, of which around $2.3 million was retained by the recipient, is now being investigated by an independent accountant. Meanwhile, GCL’s shares remain suspended because the payment issue is holding up its 2020 accounts.

Based on the price agreed for the first year of the five-year contract, the total deal would be worth almost $4 billion to the $1 billion company. However, with input costs rising and the state-owned sponsor likely to expect to pay lower fees for subsequent years, the TOPCon manufacturer’s margins may not remain so fat.

The private-sector arm of the World Bank says it will lend up to $150 million to Johannesburg-based Absa Bank for green project funding.

Buyer Equinor could be in for a pleasant surprise – its assessment Wento boasts a 1 GW solar project pipeline in the nation significantly under-reports the 1.6 GW claimed by private equity fund seller Enterprise Investors.

A Florida-based e-mobility company and a business park operator have pledged to invest up to $1 billion into the planned factory, in Chonburi province, starting with a 1 GWh section likely to take shape in 2023.