Preview Newsletter
SFCE 9/30
-
Europe’s largest solar park connected to the grid
Sep 29, 2015 | PV Tech
By Tom Kenning
The largest solar park in Europe, a 300MW project developed by France-based firm Neoen near Bordeaux, has been connected to the grid. -
Yingli Green struggling to repay looming debt
Sep 30, 2015 | PV Tech
By Mark Osborne
Struggling Silicon Module Super League (SMSL) member Yingli Green has said it will have to restructure a repayment plan for US$157 million, due in October. -
Russian Resources Start to Flow Into Renewable Energy
Sep 30, 2015 | The Huffington Post
By Woodrow Clark
Putin makes his crafty strategies about Syria in public at the United Nations. Back in Russia, he is shrewdly pursuing many of the economic modernization policies initiated by his predecessor, Russia's third president Dmitry Medvedev (2008-2012). For example, Putin is continuing Russia's move into renewable energy that began several years earlier as part of Medvedev's effort to diversify Russia's economy away from natural resources. -
Indian Renewable Energy Agency Issues Bonds Worth Over $300 Million
Sep 30, 2015 | Clean Technica
By Smiti Mittal
The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency has announced a huge bond issue likely to be the first among a long list of similar capital raising exercises to finance the country’s renewable energy infrastructure.
Industry News
-
Europe’s largest solar park connected to the grid
Sep 29, 2015 | PV Tech
By Tom Kenning
The largest solar park in Europe, a 300MW project developed by France-based firm Neoen near Bordeaux, has been connected to the grid.
Neoen started developing the EUR360 million (US$404 million) park 10 months ago on a 250-hectare site at Cestas in south-western France.
The park will be able to produce enough electricity for 250,000 people, the equivalent of the neighbouring city of Bordeaux. If heating is included this number comes down to 150,000 people, Neoen project manager Guilhem de Tyssandier told PV Tech.
A consortium composed of Eiffage, its subsidiary Clemessy, Schneider Electric and Krinner, was in charge of the works and construction of the park, which was separated into 25 separate plants of 12MW each.
At the height of operations, there were 250 workers on site, installing nearly 5MW of solar panels each day in an East-West facing orientation.
Modules were supplied by three separate Chinese manufacturers, Trina Solar, Yingli Solar and Canadian Solar.
Electricity will be sold under a 20-year power purchase agreement with the utility EDF. The solar park has the ability to sell electricity at a price of EUR105/MWh.
On 25 September, the park was connected to France’s unique high voltage network Réseau de transport d’électricité (RTE), which provides electricity across the country.
PV Tech visited the plant earlier this month to take a closer look at the intricacies of its design and investigate the challenges of putting together Europe’s largest solar installation. A blog on the visit will be published this week.
http://www.pv-tech.org/news/europes_largest_solar_park_connected_to_the_grid
-
Yingli Green struggling to repay looming debt
Sep 30, 2015 | PV Tech
By Mark Osborne
Struggling Silicon Module Super League (SMSL) member Yingli Green has said it will have to restructure a repayment plan for US$157 million, due in October.
Previously, Yingli Green had said it expected to honour the mid-term debt by selling land rights held by the company back to the local provincial government in China in connection to its polysilicon plant, Fine Silicon. The company also planned to sell some equity interests in joint ventures to further support liquidity in the second-half of the year.
Yingli Green noted that it expected to receive around US$138 million from the land rights sale.
However, the proceeds of the sale would neither be received before the US$157 million debt is due nor would the proceeds be fully received by the end of the year.
Yingli Green said that it would therefore be able to partially repay the debt before the end of 2015, while an unspecified amount of the debt would only be made available within one year of the overdue debt.
Yiyu Wang, chief financial officer of Yingli Green Energy said: "The company has established good will with our major notes-holders through the successful repayment of our mid-term notes due this May, which amounted to US$188 million, and we are closely communicating with the notes-holders again around this revised repayment plan.”
The company reported a net loss of US$96.5 million in the second quarter of 2015, compared to a net loss of US$58.6 million in the previous quarter and has racked-up losses of more than US$1 billion in recent years and debts of over US$2 billion, forcing the company to announce a going concern warning in its 2014 annual report.
As of June 30, 2015, Yingli Green only had US$92.7 million in cash and cash equivalents and slashed full-year shipment guidance by more than 1GW.
The company also received a de-listing notice from the NYSE.
http://www.pv-tech.org/news/yingli_green_struggling_to_repay_looming_debt
-
Russian Resources Start to Flow Into Renewable Energy
Sep 30, 2015 | The Huffington Post
By Woodrow Clark
Putin makes his crafty strategies about Syria in public at the United Nations. Back in Russia, he is shrewdly pursuing many of the economic modernization policies initiated by his predecessor, Russia's third president Dmitry Medvedev (2008-2012). For example, Putin is continuing Russia's move into renewable energy that began several years earlier as part of Medvedev's effort to diversify Russia's economy away from natural resources.
The biggest sign that renewable energy is a viable part for Russia's energy landscape is the practical interest in this sector from Russia's savviest businessmen - the oligarchs who always follow the BIG money.
Enter Social Capitalists
Viktor Vekselberg is one of Russia's richest men with estimated net worth of nearly $14 billion, whose main corporate vehicle, Renova, controls a broad array of companies in several industries. Several years ago, Renova established a business relationship with solar system designer and manufacturer Hevel. The venture quickly got off the ground, and it currently aims to invest $450 million in solar technology in the next three years. Hevel has three solar farms already operating and just opened (2015) a solar panel manufacturing plant.
The Russian renewable energy sector attracted the attention of other industrial groups, both private and state owned. Rosnano, Russia's well-funded state owned corporation made solar energy manufacturing, installation and operations one of its high priorities as an investor in Hevel.
The Russian solar sector is attracting international investor attention. In late 2014, China's Solar Systems, the subsidiary of Chinese electric equipment maker Amur Sirius, announced plans to invest up to $1 billion in the Russian solar energy projects. Three projects with the total capacity of 175 MW are already under constructions, and the construction of a solar panel factory is now under consideration.
China's interest in the Russian solar market is based upon the potential of the Russian internal electricity market. But China's attention to Russia's wind resources is based upon its external export potential to China.
Russia's best wind areas located off the Pacific Coast, which are close to China's heavily polluted North Eastern provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin. Russia's Energy Ministry recently announced that Russia and China are exploring the installation of 50 GW wind power stations in the Russian Far East. Furthermore China's State Grid Corp has signed a pact with the Russian Energy Agency for building high-voltage transmission lines which has been the key problem in China transmitting its renewable energy power generation from solar and wind in the west to the cities in eastern China.
In many early alternative energy projects, Russia relied on imported technology and equipment. But this is changing. Russia quickly moved into manufacturing using its R&D resources. For example, Vekselberg's Hevel venture includes both a manufacturing plant and a research institute. Russia needs to play catch-up with the established and new players in the renewable energy sectors, such as Germany and China respectively. However Russia is not starting from ground zero. Russia certainly has the scientific and industrial skills to produce solar and wind equipment. In fact, from its Soviet Union (USSR) past, Russia inherited a record of groundbreaking achievements in renewable and alternative energy systems.
For example, in the 1930s, USSR was the first nation in the world to construct utility-scale wind turbines. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union opened a tidal electric plant and took the global lead in building geothermal power plants, even before Iceland became the leader today with 93% of its nation energy generated from geothermal and hydroelectric power sources. There are currently around 100 MW of geothermal power plants operating in Russia, and about 55 MW of planned additional capacity.
Some of Russia's technological edge is unique: solar is a critical part of Russian space program. Besides, catching up with the West, establishing alternative energy systems is something that has happened in Russia historically. For example, in the process of building electrified (i.e., green) railroads Russia started much later than the US, but then quickly took the lead. Today, 60% of Russia's railway systems are electrified, several times the level of the United States.
As for the Western view that Russia is a backward nation in alternative energy, that depends on definition of "alternative." The data and history show that this is only true if alternative is defined only as wind and solar. For example, by including hydro-electric power from dams, Russia generates 17% of its energy from renewable sources, compared to 12% in the US.
It would be wrong to expect Russia's energy industry to resemble either Germany or the United States. Russia will take its own path in the alternative energy field with renewable energy leading the way. But renewable energy is still in its early days. In particular there are plenty of innovations that will surely occur in renewable energy. Some renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are "intermittent" or not stable "base" load energy sources. Thus energy storage is critical for dependable base load power through new technologies beyond batteries such as fuel cells, hydrogen cars, and smart green cities. In many of these areas, Russia has the potential to jump into the lead. Provided, of course, that national politics does not get in the way.
Problems of Russian National Politics
Until 2008, Russia had no laws in place that would encourage the development of alternative and particularly renewable energy. But when the reform minded President Medvedev came into the office in May 2008, it changed. In January 2009, Russia's energy plan included the mandate to increase energy from renewable energy sources to 4.5%, by the year 2020, a four-fold increase.
Medvedev's push for solar energy was both economic and political. It was introduced as part of Medvedev's modernization program. In his last days in the office as president, Medvedev incorporated solar into Russia's long-term economic policy. At Skolkovo Innovation Center, the technology business park near Moscow established as part of Medvedev's reforms, renewable energy is an important priority.
For Russia, the ability to develop a viable renewable energy sector carries a special significance. Alternative energy development touches several critical aims announced by the Russian government: getting Russia off, as they say in Moscow, "the oil needle"; encouraging the economic development in regions; and developing domestic manufacturing; along with supporting technologies and systems, plus more. Creation of a new viable high tech renewable sector would be a litmus test of sorts that would show if Russia is serious about getting off of its fossil fuel resource-based economy.
But there is something else to this movement toward renewable energy activity in Russia. That is Russia's former president, Dmitry Medvedev, remains politically alive. After stepping down from the presidency in 2012, Medvedev lost much of his political cache. But he managed to hang on to the job of Prime Minister, which is second in significance only to Russia's President, Putin. The development of alternative energy with a focus on renewable energy such as solar and wind has been Medvedev's brain child. The fact that Russia continues to announce renewable energy projects one after another is an encouraging sign that Medvedev retained considerable influence in the government.
Russia's presidential election is three years away in 2018. Stay tuned.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/woodrow-clark/russian-resources-start-t_b_8215902.html
-
Indian Renewable Energy Agency Issues Bonds Worth Over $300 Million
Sep 30, 2015 | Clean Technica
By Smiti Mittal
The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency has announced a huge bond issue likely to be the first among a long list of similar capital raising exercises to finance the country’s renewable energy infrastructure.
The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) is the primary government body looking after financial lending and incentives in the country’s renewable energy market and is expected to play a major role in the disbursement of low-cost finance to upcoming renewable energy projects in the country.
IREDA has launched tax-free bonds worth Rs 20 billion (around $307 million) to raise funds which would be used to finance renewable energy projects, including small-scale and rooftop solar power projects.
In June, Indian media reported that three power sector financial institutions – Power Finance Corporation (PFC), Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) – were to raise around $600 million through tax-free bonds. The reports suggested that these entities would provide finance at 10.5%, which is comparatively cheaper than the rates on offer by the Indian banks.
IREDA has been tied up with several international development banks to offer low-cost finance to private project developers. Earlier this year, the International Finance Corporation (IFC)signed a master cooperation agreement with IREDA to facilitate low-cost financing in India. IREDA is looking to raise funds from all possible sources as the renewable energy installation targets set by the government are extremely high. By March 2022, the Indian government plans to have 175 GW renewable energy capacity operational. IREDA is expected to issue more of such tax-free bonds in the future in addition to signing financing deals with international banks.
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/09/30/indian-renewable-energy-agency-issues-bonds-worth-300-million/
Industry News
Add recipients
Suggested