LatAm PV markets see increasing use of green bonds
Colombia’s Celsia is issuing green bonds worth US$145 million to finance its large solar PV project pipeline, while U.K.-based Faro Energy is resorting to clean energy bonds to fund its distributed generation (DG) solar projects across Brazil.
Chad unveils plans for giant solar park
The project, the capacity of which could range between 200-400 MW, is being planned by Dubai-based Almaden Emirates Fortune Power LLC, a joint venture of holding investment company, Emirates Fortune Group and Chinese solar manufacturer, Almaden. If built, the facility will more than double the country’s current power generation capacity, and help reduce energy poverty.
Solar corporate funding rises 15% YoY with $5.3 billion in H1 2018 – Mercom
Despite the uncertainty caused by U.S. solar panel import tariffs, deteriorating trade relations between the U.S. and China, and the looming consequences of China’s PV policy change, the solar industry saw a 15% YoY increase in corporate funding in the first half of 2018, on the back of a Q2 rebound, finds the latest Mercom Capital report.
Mexican utility CFE retires protection measures against solar net metering
Without the threat of a hostile attitude from the state-owned power provider, the Mexican distributed generation (DG) market may now continue to be a strong driver of growth in the northern American country.
Q4 could be a ‘hot market’ for solar contract negotiations following China’s changes – BNEF Q&A
In a Q&A with Bloomberg NEF (BNEF), two solar analysts tell pv magazine they see no PV module price rebound, continuing oversupply, and falling utilization rates. They expect Q4 could be a “hot market” for contract negotiations, while Chinese developers will start overseas construction earlier than planned for two key reasons.
Complete ecosystem needed to ensure India’s solar success – UL India interview
The Indian Government must create a complete ecosystem to ensure the effective on-ground execution of its ambitious solar program, says Chakradhar Byreddy, Director–Renewable Energy, UL, Asia Pacific, during an interview with pv magazine. This includes investing in laboratory infrastructure, and skills for technical due diligence, energy yield assessment and forecasting.
Global EV market growing sturdily despite trade dispute setbacks
EnergyTrend recognizes recent tariffs developments will hit the electric vehicle (EV) industry. Despite this, environmental regulations, as well as costs and technological advancement, will prevail and continue to drive EV sales globally.
Global solar investment drops due to low project costs, China policy change
While overall global investment in clean energy saw a decrease of just 1% YoY in the first half of 2018, solar’s share dropped 19% following changes to China’s PV policy and lower project costs, says Bloomberg NEF (BNEF). It forecasts this trend to continue throughout the year.
Italian government challenges Sicily’s moratorium on solar parks
The Italian Council of Ministers said that Sicily’s temporary suspension of all approvals for large-scale wind and solar project is unconstitutional.
Turkey authorizes foreign-currency loans for already approved unlicensed PV projects
The measure is intended to reduce domestic foreign exchange exposure for investors and developers of PV projects up to 1 MW (and solar parks consisting of several 1 MW units). Prior to these new rules, only licensed PV projects exceeding 1 MW in size were granted this kind of financing.
