Markets & Finance

Solar was the star performer of the US renewable energy generators in 2013, adding 2,963MW of new capacity over the year, according to new figures from the country’s Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC).

Investment groups Equis Funds and Partners Group have raised ¥26.1 billion (US$250 million) of equity to fund utility-scale solar power stations for developer Nippon Renewable Energy through a joint investment platform, Japan Solar.

Wildly varying reports of Kenya’s plans for deploying solar energy have been dismissed by power industry and policy figures in the East African country.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has said that preliminary estimates indicate that the PV industry end demand reached as high as 39GW in 2013, up 28% from 2012 and driven by massive growth in China, Japan and the US in particular.

The German cabinet approved a new charge on self-consumed solar power on Wednesday.

Chile’s pipeline of approved but unbuilt PV projects reached over 5.33GW at the end of December, according to the country’s renewable energy research centre CER.

US-based investment bank, ROTH Capital Partners cleantech analysts have raised their 2014 market forecast for the PV industry.

The EU has proposed a binding 27% renewable energy target for 2030 and a 40% emissions reduction goal.

Aside from traditional solar PV module manufacturing product warranties JA Solar in collaboration with Solar Insurance and Finance (Solarif) is offering customers solar project insurance.

The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) wants ‘established’ renewables to compete against each other for support under its upcoming contracts for difference (CfD) regime.