The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has allocated up to US$15.2 million for a new research and development (R&D) round set to help industry-partnered projects that are looking to develop and commercialise renewable energy technologies.
One of Japan’s largest trading companies, Marubeni, which is already involved in both upstream and downstream sectors of PV industry, has entered the domestic market for residential solar.
SKI Corp, Japanese a mobile phone sales agency, has signalled its intent to build a 24MW solar farm in the west of Japan and to borrow ¥8 billion (US$67 million), for the purposes of doing so.
Thin-film maker Hanergy, which has been the subject of recent press reports over “unusual” share trading, has opened a number of retail stores in its homeland, China.
The cost of solar in Japan declined as much as 15% in one year, but a lack of clear policy direction from the government has left a number of businesses with a “pessimistic” outlook of the industry’s future, according to a survey by the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF).
Major tier-one PV manufacturer JinkoSolar has finally said its first major overseas solar cell and module manufacturing facility is based in Penang, Malaysia.
Japan has confirmed it will make big cuts to the feed-in tariff (FiT) payable for solar, which have been expected for some time, dropping the rate by around 16%, from ¥32 (US$0.27) per kWh to ¥27 per kWh by July.
AGL Energy’s 102MW Nyngan Solar Plant in western New South Wales is expected to begin its first generation next month, and be fully operational by July 2015.
