Strategic Alliances

A Solargiga subsidiary has handed over $2.5 million to almost double its stake in a 1.2 GW capacity module manufacturing business set up in June by investors which include the local government.

The economic fallout of the Covid-19 outbreak is yet to be determined but as legislators scramble to establish fiscal support for the EU it is becoming clear the suits in Brussels are not prepared to scrap their hard-won Green Deal plan. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The Asian Development Bank says developing countries in Asia and the Pacific should consider developing their own solar industry supply chains as the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed their over-reliance on China to carry through the energy transition.

An Austrian consortium has developed a hydrogen generation, storage and fueling station along with fuel cell-propelled snowmobiles. The team was so certain of the readiness of the solution they launched it during an FIS World Cup skiing event.

While the world’s climate negotiators dither, the post Covid-19 world could see their efforts overtaken – but only if policymakers are bold enough to take the opportunity to offer truly green fiscal stimulus packages to get us through the crisis. Felicia Jackson, from the center for sustainable finance of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, gives her thoughts here.

Tesla’s Nevada operation is still open for business, though. The EV and battery maker has assured the market its cash position is strong enough to weather an “extended period of uncertainty”.

The meeting planned yesterday to open the final bids by consortia vying to develop the 1.5 GW Al-Dhafra solar field in Abu Dhabi was reportedly postponed because coronavirus-related restrictions on public gatherings in the emirate. The chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy told pv magazine this year the project would bring a new low price for solar power.

English partners appear to be in demand with a London-based vanadium flow supplier tying up with a U.S. partner just as an automotive design company in Coventry announces plans for electric and hydrogen vehicle production in the West Midlands.

GCL-Poly has pulled its commitment to inject US$68m into a 30 GW production capacity wafer fab joint venture established with Tianjin Zhonghuan in the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, citing a preference to focus on ‘more competitive products’.

A fund backed by the United Nations and the government of Luxembourg is helping companies to provide small solar PV systems and innovative cooking stoves in the economically challenged West African nation.