San Francisco-based SunFunder is a solar finance business with a mission to unlock capital for solar energy in emerging markets. It primarily aggregates investment capital through its beyond-the-grid and Solar Empowerment funds, thereby giving accredited investors the opportunity to invest in their on-grid and off-grid solar portfolio. Andrea Griffin, SunFunder’s vice president of global business development, stopped by PV Tech to discuss investment, currency risk and energy storage in West Africa.
Yesterday the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) approved a new rate structure for distributed energy resources (DER) that is set to more accurately value and compensate for solar, while also boosting energy storage and community solar.
The Japanese PV market’s switch from a feed-in tariff (FiT) driven, mostly utility-scale phenomenon to one based on rooftops and self-consumption was in evidence at the PV Expo trade show in Tokyo this week.
SolarEdge is rolling out a new complete residential solution throughout Europe that combines inverters, storage and home automation. The idea is to manage and monitor electricity consumption, solar energy generation and storage through one central device control that enables enhanced energy independence and increases self-consumption.
In this week's Movers & Shakers segment, PV Tech focuses mainly on executive shifts in US solar companies involved in storage, trackers, residential loans and more. The African Development Bank is also revamping its management board, with a new head of Renewables.
In this week's Movers & Shakers, PV Tech focuses on employment news within German and US energy companies; featuring energy storage, solar cell manufacturing and EPC.
The participation of venture capital (VC) investors seems to have cooled, while project funding has conversely seen a sharp rise, in the latest quarterly report into funding and mergers and acquisitions from Mercom Capital.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has committed up to AU$18 million in funding to build the first phase of a AU$120 million solar-wind-storage project by Windlab and Eurus that will deliver renewable energy on demand.
Tesla Motors and SolarCity are closer to combining their empires to form what could be the world’s largest solar and energy storage company, as the final referendum for the merger has been officially set for 17 November 2016.
