A consortium between Essel Infra, an arm of Indian conglomerate Essel group, and China’s GCL Poly Energy Holdings will start initial site development of a major solar PV manufacturing plant in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh within two months.
San Francisco-based SunFunder is a solar finance business with a mission to unlock capital for solar energy in emerging markets. It primarily aggregates investment capital through its beyond-the-grid and Solar Empowerment funds, thereby giving accredited investors the opportunity to invest in their on-grid and off-grid solar portfolio. Andrea Griffin, SunFunder’s vice president of global business development, stopped by PV Tech to discuss investment, currency risk and energy storage in West Africa.
French tracker specialist Exosun has partnered with Lesedi Nuclear Services, a leading South African power company to offer the most localised tracking system in the region.
Lawmakers and solar supporters in Maine have united to fight a widely criticised decision by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to phase out retail net metering by 2018.
New York has secured a contract with UGE International and Gotham Community Solar to develop and construct the state’s first ever community solar project at a multi-tenant commercial facility in Brooklyn.
In defiance of a significant trend by a growing number of leading PV manufacturers to either completely replace P-type multi c-Si cell technology with P-type mono c-Si with PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Contact) technology, or hedge their bets and do PERC on both wafer substrates, Silicon Module Super League member Canadian Solar is placing a potentially risky bet on pushing ahead with the migration to P-type multi c-Si PERC cell technology using diamond wire saw (DWS) and ‘Black Silicon’ texturing under its ‘ONYX’ cell branding.
Alongside finance and political considerations, customer education has been identified as a key driver of Africa’s emerging commercial and industrial (C&I) solar sector, according to market experts.
Utility Gulf Power has reached a settlement with Florida’s clean energy industry as it drops its proposal that would have resulted in a 155% increase in power rates.
Silicon Module Super League (SMSL) member JA Solar is continuing to expand manufacturing capacity in 2017 after guiding total shipments to be in the range of 6GW to 6.5GW, up from 5.2GW in 2016.
