The White House announcement of new developments and investment in energy storage has been characterised as “the first executive office push for energy storage” that will “undoubtedly galvanize” the industry, in a new GTM Research brief by the firm's energy storage director Ravi Manghani.
Hive Energy is set to become the first British company to net a major PV project contract in Cuba. As part of the deal, Hive Energy will develop a 50MW installation — which will stand as the first utility-scale site to be developed in the country.
Brazilian public bank Banco do Nordeste (Northeast Bank) has created a credit line to allow companies to install solar Pv and other renewable sources of energy in the mini (75kW-5MW) and micro-generation (>100KW) segment.
Crystal growth equipment supplier GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) said it secured a number of polysilicon and wafer related orders from customers based in Asia.
SolarEdge and SMA’s launches of inverters compatible with Tesla’s Powerwall and LG Chem’s new range mark a “growing trend” towards higher voltage batteries for residential PV systems, an IHS analyst has said.
Residential PV services provider OneRoof Energy, a subsidiary of OneRoof Energy Group, has signed a US$50 million construction loan facility with Black Coral Capital, a current investor in the company. In addition, Black Coral has funded US$9.05 million of working capital in secured non-convertible notes to support solar 2.0 national growth strategy.
Global shipments of PV inverters will reach 90GW by 2020, valuing at more than US$7.1 billion, according to GTM Research’s latest report, 'The Global PV Inverter and MLPE Landscape 2016'. This represents an average annual growth rate of 11% between 2016 and the end of the decade.
Private infrastructure investment in solar energy during 2015 grew to US$9.4 billion, 72% higher than the average of the previous five years, according to new World Bank figures.
A new study by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) highlights the continued need to focus on balance of system (BOS) cost reductions for solar PV power plants to continue to expand as a key global renewable energy source.