Solar investment

China’s solar industry rebounded in 2023 after years of pandemic-related sluggishness. As the year draws to a close, pv magazine looks back at key highlights of 2023 and considers the prospects for 2024.

While people rush to embrace every new generation of smartphones, we are often content to rely on aging solar projects to carry the energy transition. Tomaso Charlemont, product manager for PV repowering and revamping at German developer BayWa re, asks why.

Buoyant predictions about a rosy future for African photovoltaics, based on the continent’s abundant solar resources, continue to overlook the difficulties of securing investment, as Empower New Energy co-founder and CEO Terje Osmundsen explains, referring to a report published by the Africa Solar Industry Association at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi today.

Australia’s bounteous land and sun, combined with its new energy-transition-focused government, make it attractive for international renewables investors. Two such players are Greek industrial conglomerate Mytilineos and Philippines-based energy company ACEN Corp., both of which have recently announced further large-scale investment to expand their Australian solar portfolios.

The US Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 sets aside $369 billion to decarbonize the economy and respond to climate change. pv magazine USA’s Anne Fischer and Ryan Kennedy report on the boost the landmark legislation is expected to provide to solar and battery deployment and manufacturing.

Developers are making hay as far as PPA prices are concerned thanks to eye-watering wholesale electricity prices which mean they can just sell their solar and wind power on the open market.

Norwegian analyst Rystad Energy has warned the solar industry could suffer the same effects of rising input prices as onshore wind developers grappling with ever more costly steel, with much hinging on how much solar panel raw material polysilicon can be manufactured.

The International Energy Agency has acknowledged dramatic falls in energy investment caused by the Covid-19 crisis but said renewables, including PV, offered an attractive proposition to investors as the dust settled, given their enticing economics and short turnaround times.

pv magazine spoke to Mark Jones, chief executive of privately-owned clean energy investment company Susgen about where the newly-launched business is looking to spend the cash pile it has allocated for big, early-stage project pipelines.

Mercom Capital Group has issued a report tallying up financial activity in the solar sector between January and March 2020. The sobering result is that cash flows are down by considerable margins on all metrics.