Tom Kenning

Solar energy now accounts for 1% of all global electricity demand but the next 1% will come much sooner. Tom Kenning investigates just how much quicker.

Tony Abbott’s government has finally approved the reduction of the country's Renewable Energy Target (RET) from 41,650GWh to 33,000GWh by 2020 after 15 months of uncertainty for the solar sector.

Private infrastructure fund F2i SGR is set to acquire 56.4MW of PV plants mainly in Sicily from CogiPower Spa, an arm of renewables firm Cogip.

First Solar has signed an agreement to supply modules for the 200MW second phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai.

Japanese telecoms provider-turned solar developer Softbank is planning to provide funds and expertise for 'mega' solar PV plants in India and to form a joint venture with Foxconn and Bharti.

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), an arm of the World Bank, will provide US$56.7 million investment for 80MW of solar power projects being developed by SunEdison in Honduras.

Global PV installations in 2015 are expected to reach 57.4GW capacity according to Mercom Capital Group’s latest report.

India will install 31GW of solar capacity by 2019, which is short of a projected 69GW government target, but the market will still grow at an “impressive pace”, according to the latest forecasts from consultancy firm Bridge to India.

India has officially approved its well-publicised 100GW by 2022 solar capacity target after a meeting of India’s Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Power engineering company Bechtel has dismissed concerns that its 358MW Soda Mountain solar project proposed for the Mojave Desert will be setback without the city of Los Angeles purchasing electricity from it.