Markets & Finance

A key topic of debate during SNEC 2014 in Shanghai has been the concern over meeting Chinese government targets for distributed generation (DG), which are becoming seen as increasingly over ambitious.

Capital One Bank has invested US$100million into a partnership with residential installer and leasing company SolarCity, marking the US bank’s first ever investment in renewable energy.

Sales of PV monitoring equipment surpassed global PV installations in 2013, according to analysis by GTM Research.

EDF Renewables has sold 50% of its remaining stake in the 143MW Catalina PV project in California to financial services firm TIAA-CREF.

The US Department of Commerce has delayed the preliminary solar anti-dumping decision hearing from 11 June to 24 July.

Preparing to do business after the FiT scheme ends in 2020, whether or not the government maintain the country’s “no nuclear” energy policy, will be crucial to survival for solar in Japan, according to one expert.

A key conference session at SNEC 2014, the APVIA Solar Leaders Dialogue session, held a day ahead of the start of the main SNEC exhibition, was dominated by past, present and possible future trade wars against and within the PV industry.

A US grand jury has filed charges against five members of the Chinese military for hacking into US-based companies including SolarWorld Americas.

One of Britain’s solar ‘yield cos,’ Foresight Solar Fund, has announced a debt acquisition facility, worth £100 million (US$168 million) , which will enable the fund to purchase further solar farm assets.

China has set itself a target to reach an installed solar generation capacity of 70GW by 2017.