Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has reported that Global solar investments topped US$160.8 billion in 2017, an 18% increase over the previous year and importantly, despite capital costs declining around 25%.
Several provincial authorities in Vietnam are developing guidelines for renewables that should improve the country’s solar market, but stubbornness from the monopoly utility EVN means that the largest-scale projects remain the preserve of big risk-takers, according to a representative of international law firm Baker McKenzie.
A 30% stake in the largest solar power project under development in Jordan has been bought by Taaleri Group, which will participate in the construction and operation of the solar plant alongside the majority shareholder Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar).
ACWA Power has reached financial close on three solar PV projects under round two of Egypt Feed-in-Tariff program II – with the three installations boasting a generation capacity of 165.5MW.
The long and painful saga of SunEdison’s fall from grace would seem to be at an end after the renewables firm officially emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 29, 2017.
Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier Singulus Technologies said that its major CIGS (Copper-Indium-Gallium-Diselenide) thin-film module customer in China, China National Building Materials (CNBM) had secured a minority interest in the company.
Taiwan-based merchant PV manufacturer and downstream project developer Neo Solar Power Corporation (NSP) said a Joint Venture business unit had secured syndicated loans valued at NT$5 billion (US169 million) to build PV power plants totalling 100MW in Taiwan.
From technology trends breaking out at scale, China’s mind-blowing deployment, a certain trade case in the US and of course, one or two notable bankruptcies, 2017 was never short of drama. But which stories drew your attention in 2017?
