Major polysilicon producer Wacker Chemie has reported its polysilicon division was heavily impacted by the slump in demand due to China’s ‘531 New Deal’ as a reason for the sharp decline in revenue and profitability which declined significantly in 2018.
According to provisional data from BloombergNEF (BNEF), global solar PV installations reached 109GW in 2018 as the cost of installing a megawatt of photovoltaic capacity fell 12%, which spurred markets outside China to increase installations.
PV inverter manufacturer KACO new energy is changing its business focus to include only string inverters and energy storage products, after its acquisition of Energy Depot, selling its central inverter business subsidiary in South Korea to OCI Power. Financial details were not disclosed.
Italian utility Enel has launched a €1 billion (US$1.14 billion) green bond to finance new renewables, transmission and distribution networks and e-mobility projects.
Cepsa and Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, are to partner on setting up renewable energy projects in Spain and Portugal, where Cepsa is planning 500-600MW of capacity over the next five years.
Finnish renewables developer and fund manager Taaleri Energia has formed a joint venture with Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, to develop solar and wind projects in Central and Eastern Europe.
Invenergy bags financing for 160MW Georgia solar project, Juwi and Tri-State partner on 100MW solar project in Colorado, Encavis buys 15MW solar plant in the Netherlands.
A series of issues that initially centered on the US Section 201 case, the US v China trade, China’s 531 New Deal and India’s trade tariffs, combined to slice around US$3 billion from the total global corporate funding into the solar sector in 2018, according to Mercom Capital Group.
