Financial & Legal

News in Brief: Santa Barbara, California, is the 30th US city to vote in a 100% renewable energy mandate, North Carolina legislators instate a competitive bidding process and leasing programme for solar PV while South Carolina's SCE&G launches the state's largest community solar programme; there's also more community solar online in Texas, and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources releases its final guidelines for its solar incentive SMART programme.

PV solar system provider First Solar has signed a syndicated development loan facility agreement of approximately US$64 million with Mizuho Bank.

A 30MW solar PV project in Tanzania is one of the winners of Access Power’s US$7 million Access Co-Development Facility (ACF).

Nevada solar moved up in a big way earlier this week, with the state legislature passing several bills to ensure the industry will return to its former heights.

Whilst African solar is still firmly an emerging market, investors have confirmed that issues remain with development finance, insofar as it is holding back the market from truly taking off. Whilst development finance institutions (DFIs) are a crucial part of allowing the market to find its feet, the continent’s economic infrastructure needs to move beyond the realm of development finance for commercial financiers to be enticed.

India’s first grid-scale solar-plus-storage tender has been held up by the extreme drop in the country’s solar PV prices this year, according to Rahul Walawalkar, executive director of the Indian Energy Storage Alliance.

India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the IPO of the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) aiming to help fund more renewable energy projects.

Manila-based bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is partnering with governments, communities and the private sector to support clean energy projects in the Pacific region.

UPDATED: India solar manufacturers have filed an anti-dumping petition with the Ministry of Trade and Commerce against Chinese solar cells and modules, according to a report from consultancy firm Mercom Capital Group, although no official notification has been released so far.

A total of 12 bidders have been prequalified following the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Zambia’s second round of Scaling Solar tenders for up to 300MW of PV projects.