Asia & Oceania

A 100MW PV plant in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, has come one step closer to beginning construction after officials from the South Korean and Uzbekistan governments signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) this week to cooperate in bringing solar power to the country.

Japanese thin-film PV manufacturer Solar Frontier is to build its fourth CIGS module assembly plant in Japan with a nameplate capacity of 150MW.

Chinese PV manufacturer Goldpoly New Energy Holdings has continued the expansion of its downstream business with the acquisition of a Zhongli Talesun subsidiary and with it 180MW worth of PV projects.

The pipeline of grid-use PV projects approved for construction by the Philippines Department of Energy totalled 844.71MW across 38 projects, as of 30 November.

The State Grid Corporation of China, the world’s largest state-owned utility company, has joined the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii).

Energy authorities in the Philippines have called on the international community to donate inverters and batteries to help set up solar energy supplies, as the country struggles to get back on its feet in the wake of the devastating Typhoon Haiyan.

The liquidators of Suntech Power Holdings are to investigate the planned sale of the company’s main Chinese manufacturing unit to Shunfeng Photovoltaic International for possible legal breaches.

China Wind Power (CWP) has been awarded a CNY490 million (US$80 million) of 15-year long term project loans from the China Development Bank (CDB)

Renewable energy will benefit from a “decades long” carbon abatement fund, Australia’s environment minister Greg Hunt has claimed.

Hanwha Solar One has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Jiangsu Zhongtian Technology to jointly develop, construct, finance and grid-connect PV projects.