Europe

Pune-based Electronica Finance Limited (EFL) has raised $10 million from a climate fund managed by Swiss impact investor responsAbility to diversify its SME lending offering and to expand into financing solar PV for the commercial and industrial markets.

The result was certified by the solar cells laboratory at the calibration and test center of Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research. Imec’s measurements showed cell bifaciality surpassed 80%.

Power provider Stadtwerke Waldkirch has built a 264 kW PV system in Germany with Sunman’s glass-free modules, as a titanium rooftop at the project site made it impossible to use conventional modules.

Global energy consumption in 2018 grew by 2.3%. Electricity demand rose by 4%, nearly twice as fast as overall energy demand. China accounted for over 40% of the growth in renewable-based electricity generation, followed by Europe (25%). The United States and India together contributed another 13%.

Brussels-based SolarPower Europe and the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation on operation & maintenance (O&M), installation quality, digitalisation and storage.

The revenues of Switzerland-based Leclanché have increased more than 2.5 times to exceed CHF 47 million in 2018 compared to CHF 18 million in 2017.

The German powerhouse – which makes central inverters for PV projects in India – wants to complete the acquisition by July. Indian employees will be hoping target company Kaco’s disposal of its central inverter operation last month will avert job losses by removing any potential overlap between the manufacturers.

A flying start to the year saw huge volumes of solar cells and modules imported to India but the scale and value of such products fell over the remainder of 2018 and export figures mirrored that trend.

The French power electronics specialist is pulling out of the utility-scale segment to strengthen its profile in the residential and C&I space.

U.K. developer Lightsource BP – in which oil and gas giant BP has a significant minority stake – and its Singapore fund partner EverSource Capital are reportedly ready to take up all the $100 million slice of Ayana Renewable Power which is being put up for sale.