Focus of off-grid funding shifts in Africa
West Africa hogged more than twice as much investment as the east in a year which saw stock market backing plunge an ‘alarming’ 46%, leaving donor grant funding and debt to pick up the slack during a Covid-hit year, according to off-grid industry body GOGLA.
Solar changing shape of electricity prices in Northern Europe
Rising volumes of photovoltaic project capacity are increasing the incidence of negative price periods for electricity–and changing the times of day when they occur.
Chinese solar glass companies enjoy bountiful reporting season
An ‘explosive’, ‘booming’ global solar market in the second half of a Covid-hit 2020 saw the previous glass manufacturing overcapacity reversed, as float and auto glass producers bent all their efforts on making material for PV modules.
Chinese solar company highlights credit downgrades of state-owned entities
A record number of defaults last year has spooked some lenders, according to Solargiga, but the solar manufacturer has announced ambitious plans to ramp production capacity this year and next.
Trina became world’s third biggest panel supplier in 2020
The Chinese giant overhauled JA Solar by moving almost 16 GW worth of modules, with the 600 W-plus, 210mm-wafer-based Vertex range it launched last year having already sold 10 GW of units.
Solar could help Azerbaijan consolidate gains in Nagorno Karabakh after recent conflict
That was just one of the revelations of the latest Dentons’ Guide to renewables investment in Europe, which also noted solar plants could be switched off in Slovakia, Ireland could go either way on clean power pricing, and Luxembourg is struggling with a surprising headache.
Covid-19 and distressed solar PPAs in Spain
Spanish law firm Rödl & Partner provides an update on distressed solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) in Spain, focusing on the impact, and economic and legal consequences, of the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘Solar can energize the East African recovery’
Patrik Huber, co-founder and managing director for East Africa at renewables leasing company Solarise Africa, has spoken to pv magazine about the company’s take on how the region can prime for a green recovery. Huber explained Solarise’s contribution to the recovery includes recent expansion into three new countries.
Solargiga board expects annual loss
The directors said the company’s shuttering of solar cell manufacturing–prompted by aging production equipment and a lack of scale–were unexpected.
The weekend read: Unprecedented plans and investments in Chinese PV production capacity
“Unprecedented” was a term widely used in 2020, as the world grappled with the Covid-19 pandemic. The same word can be similarly applied to the plans and investments in production capacity announced by Chinese PV manufacturers right across the supply chain. But what shape are these expansions taking and what is driving this renewed confidence? Vincent Shaw reports from Shanghai.
