Earlier this year, the African Development Bank announced plans to facilitate 10GW of solar across the barren, semi-arid Sahel region of Sub-Saharan Africa. PV Tech investigated how increasing human pressure on the land and the widespread cutting down of trees for wood and charcoal for fuel can be alleviated by solar PV technology.
Australia's Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has made its largest equity investment in renewable energy, with AU$100 million (US$72 million) in the Australian Renewables Income Fund (ARIF), aiming to encourage institutional investors to further expand their reach into clean energy.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will no longer finance thermal coal mining or coal-fired electricity generation and will focus instead on renewable energy as part of its new five-year decarbonisation energy strategy.
PV inverter supplier SMA Solar is to lay off 425 full-time staff and discontinue China as a location as part of a restructuring plan announced in September in order to return the company to profitability quickly.
After a solar risk mitigation plan was announced at the first International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit in March 2018, the World Bank and French development bank AFD are now working together on a scheme to help remove barriers to solar in developing countries, which is held back by perceived risk.
Australia-headquartered Greatcell Solar, formerly Dyesol Solar, has appointed administrators after failing to secure further financing to develop its perovskite materials and solar cells to a commercial level.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is providing nearly half the funding necessary for a scheme to deploy solar mini-grids across 100 villages in Burkina Faso.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will invest THB5 billion (US$155 million) in Thai firm B.Grimm Power's maiden 5-year and 7-year green bonds – the first certified climate bonds to be issued in Thailand – in order to finance renewable energy projects in the Southeast Asian country.
