Policy

The International Renewable Energy Agency’s latest global outlook has spelled out just how ‘woefully’ far the world is from capping temperature rises at 1.5C, and lamented: ‘The stimulus and recovery efforts associated with the pandemic have also proved a missed opportunity.’

The developer last year sold off 2.9GW of solar generation capacity to state-owned entities to reduce its debt pile by $1.76 billion and has another 298MW up for sale as it repeated its intent to switch to blue, and later, green hydrogen.

Polysilicon maker Xinte is forging ahead with a huge expansion strategy just as solar developers at the opposite end of the industry continue to bleed cash.

Lack of locally-denominated finance, and of sufficiently long-term loans, are well established hurdles to the development of photovoltaics in Africa.

Members of the European Parliament accused Mairead McGuinness and the EU executive of insulting their institution by reversing their vote not to include nuclear in the sustainable investment taxonomy. The commissioner said the divisive energy sources will be needed to keep the lights on.

The European Commission has alleged China offered cut-price finance to Indonesia, via Beijing’s Belt and Road drive, so Jakarta could develop domestic demand for stainless steel raw material nickel ore.

The state-owned UAE clean power developer appears to have quadrupled its previously announced ambition today as it announced its $20 billion renewables portfolio rose from 10.7GW to more than 15GW last year.

Electricity generation in the Middle East and Africa could soon support the development of an interconnection between Greece, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt. Ilias Tsagas examines the landscape for this infrastructure mega-project, and the possible benefits for solar.

The international development entity has already invested $1 billion in local, off-grid electricity networks over the last decade – and attracted a further $1.1 billion in matched funding – and has predicted mini-grids could supply electricity to 490 million people by 2030.

With polysilicon production capacity having been rapidly rolled out after last year’s shortages, China analyst Frank Haugwitz has suggested global manufacturing capability for the ethylene vinyl acetate used on PV panels could struggle to keep pace with what is expected to be another record year of demand for solar.