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IRENA

IRENA’s 14th assembly underscores role of geopolitics, urgent need for action

The 14th assembly of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) last week in Abu Dhabi underscored the centrality of geopolitics and security in the current global energy landscape. The gathering also called for greater action to achieve the COP28 target of tripling renewables deployment by 2030.

IRENA says solar capacity rose by 345.5 GW in 2023

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says developers installed 345.5 GW of solar throughout the world in 2023. China mainly drove the surge, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all new renewable energy, but IRENA says more equitable growth will be needed to hit 2030 deployment targets.

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IRENA says world needs 1.1 TW of renewables per year

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) released a new report on the sidelines of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue this week describing the actions needed so the world complies with targets set at the recent COP29 conference in the United Arab Emirates. IRENA President Francesco La Camera says renewables are the only energy sources with the speed and scale to achieve the ambitious targets set in Dubai.

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Cuba addresses energy crisis with 2 GW of solar

Cuban Minister of Energy Vicente de la O Levy says 2 GW of planned solar capacity will come from 92 ground-mounted PV plants spread across the island.

Chinese PV Industry Brief: Solargiga forecasts profits, GCL sees decline

Solargiga Energy says it expects to return to a profit of CNY 130 million to CNY 170 million for 2023, while GCL Technology says it anticipates lower profits for the year.

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Weekend Read. COP: A solar flop?

Tripling clean energy generation capacity to 11 TW by 2030 was a leading pledge from the United Nations’ (UN) climate change conference in Dubai. With few details about infrastructure and energy storage and no clear PV targets, however, it is hard to judge the effectiveness of the 28th global Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting. Angela Skujins considers possible impacts for the solar industry.

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Blended finance key to scaling small-scale solar projects

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and auctusESG say in a new report that scaling up financing for renewable energy assets such as solar minigrids depends on the combination of private and public capital in a risk-adjusted return structure.

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Around 40% of the workforce in global PV industry is female

The global solar industry employed around 5 million people at the end of last year, according to recently published employment report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Despite this optimistic statistic, the female experience in the industry is “uneven” as women are mostly hired for administrative work (58%) and an even slimmer margin (13%) hold senior positions.

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Infrastructure reform is key to accelerating Africa’s energy transition

In its latestt monthly column for pv magazine, the International Renewable Energy Agency explains that, in order to realize Africa’s vast potential, we must ensure there is adequate investment and infrastructure development to support renewable energy. In the coming years, this means urgently overcoming the structural barriers across three priorities: infrastructure, policy, and institutional capabilities.

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Indonesia’s race to net zero

Coal-dependent Indonesia has huge solar potential but progress toward a net zero economy has been sluggish, explain Daniel Kurniawan and Fabby Tumiwa from the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), an Indonesian thinktank.

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