A round-up of policy developments and project news from the US, where Massachusetts’ SMART programme has doubled its capacity and plans to launch a regional imbalance market in the Southeast have come under scrutiny.
Canadian solar companies have complained about the Mexican government’s treatment of them, warning that the regime may have already breached a new trade deal signed between the two countries earlier this month.
Investment in new solar capacity fell in the first half of 2020 by 12% year-on-year to US$54.7 billion as the COVID-19 pandemic hit both project financing and scheduled auctions.
US utility firm PacifiCorp has launched its largest request for proposals for energy projects yet, seeking bids for more than 1.8GW of new solar and 600MW of battery energy storage.
Meyer Burger has selected former manufacturing plants owned by defunct, SolarWorld and Q-Cells SE in Germany to kick-start its recently announced plans to become a dedicated heterojunction module manufacturer and stop being a supplier of PV manufacturing equipment.
Spanish utility Iberdrola has landed €800 million (US$903 million) in funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) to spearhead new renewable energy deployment throughout Spain.
Corporate solar funding fell by 25% year-on-year to US$4.5 billion in the first half of 2020, but the decline could have been much starker, new analysis by Mercom Capital has found.
