The days of naming financing as one of the major hurdles for Indian solar appear to be coming to an end in 2017 as record low tariffs were enabled by a newly-attractive fiscal environment. PV Tech caught up with Kuljit Singh, partner, Transaction Advisory Services at EY, to discuss a potential spate of Indian solar IPOs, pension fund interest, Masala bonds and the future of the market.
A basket of publicly-listed solar cell and module manufacturers on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) have continued to build sales momentum through September as demand increased for products from China, Europe and the US.
A subsidiary of Reliance Capital, part of major Indian conglomerate Reliance Group, has signed an agreement to obtain INR3 billion (US$46 million) in funding from the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) for lending to renewables and energy efficiency projects.
Wave energy technology developer and solar, battery microgrid project developer Carnegie Clean Energy (CCE) has secured a 12‐month AU$7.5 million (US$5.8 million) construction debt finance facility for its Northam Solar project in Western Australia from Perth-based private investment group Asymmetric Credit Partners.
A Joint venture between Enel subsidiary Enel Green Power (EGP) and Dutch Infrastructure Fund (DIF) has begun construction of the 137.7MW Bungala Solar One plant, which is located near Port Augusta in South Australia. EGP is set to bag a US$1.35 billion deal on 1.7GW of solar and wind projects in Mexico.
The Indian solar industry expressed shock recently when it emerged that multiple Chinese PV manufacturers had been reneging on supply contracts to India, but it seems this strategy may have been a comeuppance for historic behaviour on the part of some Indian developers.
Independent solar power producer Scatec Solar ASA has teamed with Norway’s multinational oil and gas company, Statoil ASA to support the funding of a 162MW solar power plant project in Brazil.
Yesterday’s record-breaking bid opening in Saudi Arabia for 300MW of solar has grabbed headlines, including on PV Tech, but while the exact parameters of the RfP remain covert, the bid levels have sparked debate about whether such low prices can be possible without some kind of escalating tariff mechanism or other distortion.
