Power Plants

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.

US firm First Solar is to build a 1.7MW PV-diesel hybrid system to power mining giant Rio Tinto’s Weipa bauxite mine in Queensland, Australia.

Trina Solar has reported increased profits and revenues in its Q1 results largely due to higher average selling prices (ASPs).

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.

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.

The government of Bolivia has appointed Spanish PV developer Isotron SAU, a subsidiary of energy company Isastur, to develop the first PV plant in the Bolivian region of Pando.

A 161-hectare brownfield site is being cleared in East St. Louis, Illinois, to make way for a planned US$65 million, 20MW solar farm.

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.