Markets & Finance

While solar has been the backbone of Japan’s renewable energy push, deployment has been stalling in recent years. Chris Wilkinson of Rystad Energy details the benefits of the country’s feed-in premium scheme, the potential for corporate PPAs and the importance of battery storage.

Its deployed solar was up from 48MW in Q1 2022, but solar deployments dropped sequentially in Q1 2023 mainly due to volatile weather.

Spanish renewables developer X-Elio has secured €102 million (US$112 million) for three solar projects in Spain with a total capacity of 147MW.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced US$52 million in financing for research and development (R&D) into domestic solar manufacturing and recycling, including a focus on new technologies.

A combination of supply chain disruptions and extreme weather events that damage operational assets can lead to extended solar project downtimes. Rosa van Reyk, a senior underwriter at GCube Insurance, explores how the industry can ease supply chain pressure by rethinking cost efficiency and increased collaboration between developers and insurers.

US residential solar installer Sunnova has secured a conditional commitment from the US Department of Energy which will offer up to US$3 billion in a partial loan guarantee.

US-headquartered global renewable energy developer Enfinity Global has signed another power purchase agreement (PPA) with Statkraft for 34GWh of solar energy produced at one of its Italian PV facilities.

The cumulative capacity of installed and commissioned PV increased by more than 25% last year, and reached about 1.2TW by the end of 2022.

The legislation seeking to repeal Joe Biden’s two-year waiver on solar import tariffs will go to a vote in the House of Representatives next week.

Renewables developer Oracle Power PLC has signed a cooperation agreement with Chinese state-owned energy company PowerChina to jointly develop a 1GW solar PV project in Pakistan.