Brazil’s Petrobras enters solar energy business
The Brazilian oil giant has signed a memorandum of understanding with its French strategic ally, Total and its subsidiary, Total Eren to invest in solar and on-shore wind projects in Brazil.
China’s Chint investigates US solar manufacturing
The company is planning pilot U.S. inverter assembly in Texas, while it scouts for manufacturing locations in the U.S. Midwest.
Distributed energy storage standards project launched in Australia
DNV GL, Deakin University, the CSIRO, and the Smart Energy Council have come together to collaborate on a two-year project to develop a new performance standard for distributed energy storage systems. The work behind the proposed Australian Battery Performance Standard is being funded $1.9 million from ARENA and the Victoria state government.
JA Solar secures $68 million loan for equipment at 1.5 GW Vietnam wafer fab
Chinese manufacturer, JA Solar has secured a long-term buyer credit loan facility worth US$68.4 million for the procurement of equipment for its 1.5 GW wafer facility in Vietnam.
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.
Ecoligo crowdinvestment campaign for flower farm PV system in Kenya launched
Ecoligo has launched another financing round for the installation of a rooftop solar PV system at a flower farm in Kenya. The system is set to reduce the farm’s grid electricity demand by 50%, and lower its OPEX.
China’s CATL to invest €240 million in Europe’s first battery cell fab
The Chinese battery manufacturer has said it will establish a fab in Germany’s Thüringen with an annual capacity of 14 GWh. The battery cells will be primarily produced for the electric vehicle (EV) industry. Up to 600 jobs are expected to be created. In related news, BMW has entered a €4 billion long-term partnership with CATL.
