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.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a €5.9 million loan to Macedonian state-owned electricity company ELEM to build a large-scale solar power plant on the site of a former lignite coal mine.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will invest THB5 billion (US$155 million) in Thai firm B.Grimm Power's maiden 5-year and 7-year green bonds – the first certified climate bonds to be issued in Thailand – in order to finance renewable energy projects in the Southeast Asian country.
Duke Energy Carolinas, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, has issued a US$1 billion in green bond in order to finance clean energy projects, including solar and energy storage plants in North and South Carolina.
Distributed solar company Faro Energy has issued the first certified Green Bond for solar energy in Brazil, according to non-profit organisation Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI).
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which has been actively investing in renewables over the last year, now plans to issue its inaugural Green Bond, and it claims to be the first pension fund to do so.
Major Thailand-based financier TMB Bank has issued the country’s first green bond, with the World Bank's IFC as the sole investor of the US$60 million bond, the funds of which will be used exclusively to finance climate-smart projects, particularly renewable energy.
The days of naming financing as one of the major hurdles for Indian solar appear to be coming to an end in 2017 as record low tariffs were enabled by a newly-attractive fiscal environment. PV Tech caught up with Kuljit Singh, partner, Transaction Advisory Services at EY, to discuss a potential spate of Indian solar IPOs, pension fund interest, Masala bonds and the future of the market.
