Dedicated monocrystalline integrated PV module manufacturer SolarWorld believes 2017 is a transitional year for the company after announcing a switch to monocrystalline production at the expense of multicrystalline and a full-migration to PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) technology as ASP declines in the second-half of 2016 forced a major manufacturing rethink.
President Donald Trump’s executive order that promotes ‘Energy Independence’ and targets Obama’s Clean Power Plan went down a treat with fossil fuel interests, who praised Trump for making good on his promise to preserve coal jobs and avoid “regulatory burdens”. However, environmentalists took a different interpretation; viewing the order as a KO of the previous administration’s entire climate action legacy. Clean energy advocates stood somewhere in the middle, concluding that little will change in the long run.
Financial services group FlexiGroup, whose subsidiary Certegy Ezi-Pay finances rooftop solar, has issued a AU$50 million (US$38 million) climate bond, which has been certified by the global Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI).
President Trump’s long anticipated executive order advising the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw parts of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) has left clean energy advocates unabashed, despite critics viewing the order as a total wipe out of Obama’s climate action legacy.
Monica Maduekwe, coordinator of Gender Mainstreaming at the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) caught up with PV Tech to discuss ways in which the organisation is addressing existing barriers to equal participation, including utilising a US$1 million fund from the African Development Bank.
Indian renewable energy firm Greenko Energy Holdings has raised US$155 million in equity from an affiliate of global investment firm GIC and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
International PV developer Sonnedix has acquired a 21.6MW solar portfolio comprising five ground-mount projects in Italy from private equity firm First Reserve.
The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has awarded a grant of more than US$860,000 to Ghanaian solar company Buipe Solar, in support of a feasibility study for a 20MW PV project in the north of the country.
