Policy, investment and markets News for April 2013

Policy, investment and markets News Archive

Hamburg and Husum wind fairs reach agreement

From September 2014 they will jointly hold a wind fair in Hamburg once every two years, and in alternate years will also jointly hold Husum Wind.

African Development Bank approves €115 Million loan for Turkana wind project in Kenya

The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project involves the construction and operation of a 300 MW wind farm.

European cooperation in North Sea Power to Gas Platform for future energy storage system European cooperation in North Sea Power to Gas Platform for future energy storage system

A European consortium of 11 leading companies have established the North Sea Power to Gas Platform, to further develop the concept of Power-to-Gas (P2G) – the conversion of renewable electrical power into a gaseous energy carrier like hydrogen or methane.

Sunways AG: banks pull the plug on credit line

Against the background of the struggles of the PV industry, another German company hits the buffers, as banks exercise their "extraordinary termination rights" on Sunway's credit facilities.

ABB to buy U.S. inverter manufacturer Power-One Inc

The deal is said to be worth around US$1 billion.

Progress towards clean energy has stalled, IEA says

The rapid expansion of renewable technologies is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak assessment of global progress towards low-carbon energy, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in an annual report to the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM)...

BNEF: GE and Vestas "neck and neck in 2012"

Research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows that General Electric of the US and Vestas of Denmark were tied for pole position among turbine manufacturers in the world wind market in 2012 - a record year that saw 48.4GW of new capacity installed.

Stop press: Critics slam EU failure to "fix" carbon market

The European Parliament has voted against propping up the EU’s emissions trading scheme in a move that sent prices plunging to new lows in the world’s biggest carbon market.

Investment in clean energy suffers setback

According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, investment worldwide in the first quarter of 2013 was US$40.6bn, down 22% on a year earlier, due to a downturn in large wind and solar project financings.

Inverters: quality is the future

New sponsored download available: The quality of all system components and the inverter quality in particular play a crucial role for the longevity of large PV power plant projects...

US wind grew 28% in 2012: AWEA

Wind energy grew 28 percent in America last year, setting a new installation record and confirming its status as a mainstream energy source, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

New blog: Time to end the guilt on incentives and start fighting

The last month has brought another depressing piece of news: This time the potential demise of Suntech, a pioneer credited with helping scale up the PV industry, on the verge of bankruptcy...

David Zhao becomes general manager of the Switch in China

Zhao’s leadership mandate includes implementing and applying The Switch’s flexible business model in China to optimise operations and grow its local customer base in the country.

First Solar to acquire startup TetraSun

According to First Solar, TetraSun is a solar photovoltaic (PV) technology startup, which has developed a break-through cell architecture capable of conversion efficiencies exceeding 21 percent.

New markets for a new era of power - Editorial leader from the March/April 2013 issue of Renewable Energy Focus

AND WOW, there are certainly plenty of new markets for the renewable energy industry – and they are finally coming out into the light. Deployment of renewables is an “idea whose time has come”.