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Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed’s China visit an opportunity to lead GCC’s energy future
Dec 13, 2015 | The National
By LeAnne Graves
The visit of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, to Beijing could give the UAE a pivotal role in China’s plans for the region’s energy sector, experts say. Sheikh Mohammed led a delegation to China on Sunday to sign bilateral trade agreements. The main opportunity for China is to establish a base in the UAE so that the Asian... -
COP21: Solar eyes role in delivering Paris pledges
Dec 14, 2015 | PV Tech
By Ben Willis
Solar industry figures have hailed Saturday’s historic climate agreement in Paris and urged swift action by world leaders to map out how countries will now meet the aims of the deal. The agreement, over 20 years in the making, sets the world a goal of limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, a more ambitious target than the 2C... -
Trina Solar receives management buyout proposal
Dec 14, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
Tier 1 Chinese solar panel manufacturer Trina Solar has received a proposal from its chairman and CEO, Jifan Gao, backed by the Shanghai Xingsheng Equity Investment & Management Co, to “acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company not owned by the Buyer Group”, in a move that – if accepted – would see Trina go private. -
PV tenders in Germany oversubscribed again
Dec 11, 2015 | PV Tech
By Andy Colthorpe
Another round of tenders to build ground mount PV power plants in Germany has been oversubscribed, with some 562MW of hopefuls entering the bidding for just 200MW of capacity. This was the third round in a tender process which the European country implemented earlier this year to limit new ground mount installations to 1.2GW over... -
Triton Solar signs deal for $100m printed solar cell fab in India
Dec 14, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
New Jersey-headquartered Triton Solar – which specializes in printable solar cells – has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with government officials of Indian state Karnataka to build a $100 million printed solar cell factory, with production set to begin in August next year.
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Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed’s China visit an opportunity to lead GCC’s energy future
Dec 13, 2015 | The National
By LeAnne Graves
The visit of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, to Beijing could give the UAE a pivotal role in China’s plans for the region’s energy sector, experts say.
Sheikh Mohammed led a delegation to China on Sunday to sign bilateral trade agreements.
The main opportunity for China is to establish a base in the UAE so that the Asian economic powerhouse can develop a more inclusive regional approach, said Mohammed Atif, area manager of energy for the Norwegian adviser DNV GL.
“I think those are the two opportunities, within the UAE and as a base to look for opportunities to expand, invest and provide hardware into the growing renewable energy sector in Africa - which is quite significant,” said Mr Atif.
Trade volume between the two countries stood at a record levels last year at US$54.8 billion. In terms of energy, the Asian superpower imported more than 1.65 million tonnes of oil from the UAE and also has involvement in oil and gas projects such as the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline.
In terms of conventional power, China has been less successful than some of its western counterparts.
“The Chinese have been coming in slowly winning contracts for engineering, procurement and construction, but they’re not able to supply equipment because the market doesn’t trust them,” said Claudio Palmieri, chief executive of Dubai-based CLS Energy Consultants.
The tide could be turning based on financing options available to Chinese firms. Harbin Electric was part of the Acwa Power-led consortium that submitted the lowest bid of 4.5 US cents per kilowatt hour for the Hassyan clean coal power plant in Dubai.
Paddy Padmanathan, Acwa’s chief executive, said that financing played a crucial role in the project. “The future of commercially viable, low emission power generation is dependent on bringing together global technology vendors and financial institutions,” he said. “The blend of Harbin Electric and finance from the likes of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China is what enabled us to deliver a winning tariff.”
One area in particular that Chinese firms are dominating is solar photovoltaic (PV).
“The PV business is a Chinese business these days,” said Mr Palmieri. “The equipment was developed in Germany, but if you look at the top names today, they’re all Chinese.”
For the UAE and wider GCC, the area of renewable energy remains underdeveloped. That is expected to change as the Paris climate talks clinched an agreement which stipulates that every country must outline its climate change plans every five years.
“As the governments look to procure other technologies, whether it is solar or other methods, at lower costs, Chinese companies have a much better chance now of understanding local requirements,” Mr Atif said.
For Dubai-based clean energy investment firm Adenium Capital and its brainchild financing company, Yellow Door, Chinese solar panels are the way to go.
“All of our PV module agreements are currently with Chinese manufacturers,” said Jeremy Crane, chief operating officer of Adenium Capital.
Adenium is constructing a project in Jordan in which 57 megawatts of PV modules were acquired from China’s Suntech.
Yellow Door will look at 40MW for the next year.
“If the UAE decides to push faster to a more renewables-based energy sector, there are opportunities for Chinese manufacturing and Chinese-sourced equipment,” said Mr Atif.
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COP21: Solar eyes role in delivering Paris pledges
Dec 14, 2015 | PV Tech
By Ben Willis
Solar industry figures have hailed Saturday’s historic climate agreement in Paris and urged swift action by world leaders to map out how countries will now meet the aims of the deal.
The agreement, over 20 years in the making, sets the world a goal of limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, a more ambitious target than the 2C set six years ago in Copenhagen.
“The Paris agreement puts the energy transition in the fast-track as 196 countries have committed to legally binding targets, retreating from polluting fuels and investing in clean, sustainable energy,” said Oliver Schäfer, president of trade body SolarPower Europe.
“We commend world leaders for the ambitious pledges made, which is sure to accelerate deployment of solar and boost investor confidence – sending a strong message that the low-carbon economy is real and already well underway.”
Despite the euphoria over the agreement, pledges made by individual countries via the so-called intended nationally determined contributions have been shown in various analyses to be insufficient and will lead to warming of around 2.7C.
Adnan Z. Amin, director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency, said world leaders now needed to chart a clear course to meeting the aims of the deal.
“Renewable energy has made remarkable progress in the last decade. Combined with energy efficiency, it provides an immediate, viable and affordable solution to the challenge of climate change. But to meet the ambition set forth in the agreement, accelerating the deployment of renewable energy deployment across all sectors must start now,” he said.
“In January 2016, we will welcome global energy leaders at the 6th Session of the IRENA Assembly to move the Paris Agreement to the next phase, setting the global renewable energy agenda and establishing a blueprint for action to meet climate goals and set the world on a path to a sustainable energy future,” Amin said.
Solar energy has been one of the central focal points of conversation during the Paris talks, and will undoubtedly have a key role to play in delivering the targets.
"Solar truly has been the talk of Paris, this is a deserved recognition for this most versatile of technologies. Solar is key to reversing climate change and to making good economic sense – illustrated by the wave of new government and business led initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance, Terrawatt Initiative and the Global Solar Council,” said Schäfer.
Matthew Spencer, director of the UK-based Green Alliance, said: "[The deal] will accelerate the rapid technological change we have already begun to see in our energy system and in the development of the next generation of buildings, cars and household appliances. It challenges the widespread scepticism that politics can ever deliver a better world, because it just did. The agreement itself might not yet limit temperature rise to below 2 degrees, but it makes the world significantly less dangerous because it takes off the table some of the truly catastrophic scenarios where we burn all of the worlds fossil fuel reserves."
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Trina Solar receives management buyout proposal
Dec 14, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
Tier 1 Chinese solar panel manufacturer Trina Solar has received a proposal from its chairman and CEO, Jifan Gao, backed by the Shanghai Xingsheng Equity Investment & Management Co, to “acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company not owned by the Buyer Group”, in a move that – if accepted – would see Trina go private.
The proposed management buyout (MBO) is anchored on an offer by the buyer group to purchase the remaining ordinary American depositary shares (ADS) for $11.6 per ADS, representing a premium of 21.5% above the closing price of its ADSs on December 11.
This offer price is also some 20.2% more than the average closing price of Trina’s ADSs over the past 90 trading days.
Trina Solar has created a special committee to consider the proposal, with two independent directors and the board – minus Gao – mulling the offer to go private. In a press release issued Monday, Trina Solar confirmed that it can make no assurance that any definitive offer will be made, nor did the company give any indication as to whether it would accept such an offer.
Last week the solar company exited the EU price undertaking, stating that it would continue to serve the European solar market via its overseas manufacturing facilities rather than continue to pay the minimum import price (MIP) levied on solar goods from China.
This decision has been interpreted within the industry as a further distancing from Europe by Trina Solar, and comes amid relative upheaval within the company’s European division. In October Trina’s former European head Ben Hill left the company as part of the management reshuffle, while the company continued to fend off queries about the possibility of spinning-off its PV project business from its manufacturing objectives.
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PV tenders in Germany oversubscribed again
Dec 11, 2015 | PV Tech
By Andy Colthorpe
Another round of tenders to build ground mount PV power plants in Germany has been oversubscribed, with some 562MW of hopefuls entering the bidding for just 200MW of capacity.
This was the third round in a tender process which the European country implemented earlier this year to limit new ground mount installations to 1.2GW over three years. Germany’s regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency) said today that 43 bids had been successful, representing 204MW of new capacity. Successful bidders would be informed by email, the agency said.
In total, 127 bids were received. The tenders were also opened up beyond project developers to allow cooperatives or individuals to take part, Bundesnetzagentur president Jochen Homann said, with two cooperatives among those bidders awarded projects.
The second round in August was oversubscribed three times over, while the first round in April saw 700MW of bids for 150MW of available capacity.
The introduction of the auction process this year has drawn the ire of several groups including German PV trade association BSW Solar. The arbitrary limiting of ground mount solar capacity is an enormous missed opportunity, especially when it can be competitive with “newly built coal-fired plants”, BSW Solar spokesman David Wedepohl told PV Tech in April.
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Triton Solar signs deal for $100m printed solar cell fab in India
Dec 14, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Ian Clover
New Jersey-headquartered Triton Solar – which specializes in printable solar cells – has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with government officials of Indian state Karnataka to build a $100 million printed solar cell factory, with production set to begin in August next year.
The LoI was signed by Ratna Prabha, Karnataka’s additional chief secretary to the commerce and industries department, and Triton Solar CEO Himanshu B Patel at delegate gathering in New York.
Patel confirmed that Triton Solar would aim to have the new fab online by August next year, alongside another fab being constructed in the state of Madhya Pradesh. "We are working aggressively in order to meet the deadlines and by next August, our manufacturing facility will be likely to come up with its production," he said. "The company will be making investment of INR 600 Crore [$100 million] through this facility."
According to Triton Solar, its first fab will be located in the Pithampur Industrial area of Madhya Pradesh and will likely create around 250 local employment opportunities during the course of its construction and operation.
Inside the Karnataka fab, Triton Solar will produce its nanotechnology-powered solar cells using its patented printing technique that can produce solar energy via ambient lighting, without the need for direct sunlight.
Despite the lower efficiencies inherent to these nano and organic solar cells, their flexibility and versatility makes them an attractive option for some applications, particularly in the sector of building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV).
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