SOLAR INVESTMENTS - FROM FUNDINGS TO PARTNERSHIPS & ACQUISITIONS: WEEK 34

Chint to invest RMB 270 mn in residential solar fund; $267 million for Kiwi solar farm; Alight and Sveaskog enter long-term partnership for solar PV parks; Corporate solar PPAs in Malaysia. All these and more such stories in TaiyangNews - All About Solar Solar Investment Newsletter.

This is a weekly newsletter to keep you updated on the latest developments in solar investments, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, public offerings within the solar industry. These are select stories that have been published on our website. Subscribe to our weekly updates for the top stories from TaiyangNews. Visit https://taiyangnews.info/ for all the news on solar.

Also, do not miss our #upcomingevents: TaiyangNews Solar & Sustainability 2024 Virtual Conference on August 27, 2024 & RE+ Conference: How to Manufacture Solar Wafers, Cells and Modules Competitively in the United States on September 9 at Anaheim, USA. Details in this #newsletter.

#SolarPV #Solar #SolarAcquisitions #SolarMergers #SolarJointVenture

FUNDINGS

Financing for 42 MW in Missouri: St. Louis, US-based Birch Creek Energy, LLC has achieved financial close for its 42 MW DC utility scale solar project in Missouri. The Altona Solar Project in Audrain County is now fully operational. It is located on 208 acres of land and connects to Ameren Missouri. Tax equity came from Celtic Bank, while permanent debt was provided by West Town Bank & Trust.???

$267 million for Kiwi solar farm: Lightsource bp and Contact Energy’s co-developed 168 MW DC solar farm in New Zealand has raised around NZD 267 million ($162 million). Financing for the Kōwhai Solar Park Project has been arranged from Westpac New Zealand, Mizuho, China Construction Bank and Intesa Sanpaolo – IMICIB. It will be one of the largest solar farms in the country with around 300,000 solar panels installed on completion. Construction on site is scheduled to begin in late-2024 and complete in 2026. The project forms phase I of the Christchurch Airport’s renewable energy precinct, Kōwhai Park, said Lightsource (see New Zealand’s Solar Power Market Getting Active).??

Westpac’s energy finance plan: The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has invested AUD 160 million ($107 million) to support the clean energy plan of Australian multinational banking and financial services company Westpac. The latter plans to fund at least AUD 320 million ($214 million) worth of loans to eligible customers to install energy efficient clean technologies, including rooftop solar panels and home batteries. The Westpac Sustainable Upgrades Home Loan will be available to eligible home loan customers for a ‘competitive’ variable rate for 4.49%/annum.??

Goldman Sachs expects Saudi Arabia to invest $235 billion in clean energy by 2030?: As Saudi Arabia pursues an ‘economic diversification’ away from oil, renewable energy driven clean energy sector is set to benefit with the kingdom expected to allocate $235 billion funding for it till 2030. This amount is an increase from $148 billion forecast earlier by Goldman Sachs.?In a recent report, the global investment banking group said that this $235 billion is part of $1 trillion that the kingdom is expected to invest across 6 strategic sectors by the end of this decade. For the complete story, click here. ?????

Financing for 70 MW in Poland: Denmark-based renewables developer European Energy A/S has announced securing €33.3 million financing from Polish lender mBank for 70 MW PV capacity in Poland. While the ?obez PV Farm will have 16 MW capacity when installed, D?bnica Kaszubska will have 54.2 MW capacity. Located in Pomerania and West Pomerania regions, these 2 facilities are currently under construction with commissioning scheduled for Q4 2024. On completion, this 70 MW capacity will generate around 67 GWh annually. European Energy considers Poland a significant market for the company as its development pipeline here total around 5 GW.??

€24.4 million for Romanian solar plant: INVL Renewable Energy Fund I, a fund of alternative asset manager INVL Asset Management, that invests in renewable energy projects has won €24.4 million funding for a 60 MW solar power plant in Romania. The financing has come from the EBRD and the Energy Infrastructure Investment Fund of France’s Eiffel Investment Group. Both have granted €12.2 million each. The 60 MW solar project will be located in Dolj County of Romania. The fund is also developing 32 MW solar PV capacity in Poland.??

Chint to invest RMB 270 mn in residential solar fund: The parent company of Astronergy, Chint, announced that its subsidiary, Zhejiang Taizhou New Energy Co., Ltd. (Taizhou New Energy), will invest RMB 270 million ($37.64 million) to establish the Guangzhou Yuexiu Rongtai Equity Investment Fund Partnership. The total investment in the Fund Partnership is RMB 1.5 billion ($209.11 million), of which Taizhou New Energy will contribute 18% of the total. The focus of the fund will be on investments in residential distributed solar PV projects, along with associated energy storage facilities, as recommended by Chint Anneng, another Chint subsidiary dedicated to the investment, development, and operation of residential solar projects. To add to this, the fund will also engage in financing and leasing cooperation with Guangzhou Yuexiu Financial Leasing Co., Ltd., a leading platform for new energy financing and leasing operations in China.

PARTNERSHIPS

Alight and Sveaskog enter long-term partnership for solar PV parks: The largest forest owner of Sweden, state-run Sveaskog has contracted local developer Alight to build 2 GW solar PV capacity on land owned by the state-run company that aims to ‘create value from forest and land’.?This capacity is planned to be built over the next 5 years. Sveaskog owns 14% of Sweden’s forests or approximately 3.4 million hectares. Out of this, 3 million is productive forest land. It estimates around 5 GW of solar energy to be generated if 10,000 or 0.2% of its land is converted into solar parks. This would amount of 0.04% of Sweden’s total forest land. At the end of 2023, Sweden’s total installed solar PV capacity was almost 4 GW, including 1.3 GW installed last year (see Sweden Installed Over 1.6 GW New Solar In 2023).??Under the partnership, Sveaskog will co-invest between 30% to 49% in the solar parks and also contribute with sustainable management initiatives, while Alight will develop, build and co-own the solar parks.?For the complete story, click here.

Risen Energy join hands with Uzbekistan's Power Company: Chinese solar panel maker Risen Energy announced that it has partnered with Uzbekistan's Power Company, a major integrated power enterprise in Uzbekistan. As per the deal, over the next three years, Risen Energy will develop a 300 MW solar PV storage power station project in partnership with the Power Company. Phase I of the project will begin in the third quarter of 2024. Risen has also established a local office in Uzbekistan this year and has been catering to solar distribution across Central Asia. Earlier this year, it showcased its Hyper Ion' 750 W+ HJT module at SNEC 2024 (see Risen Energy Showcases HJT Product Line At SNEC 2024)

PPAs

Corporate solar PPAs in Malaysia: Malaysian clean energy company Solarvest Holdings Berhad has signed 5 corporate green power agreements (CGPA) through 2 joint ventures (JV). One of the JVs is with Savelight Engineering Sdn. Bhd. and TNB Renewables Sdn. Bhd., and another one with TNB Renewables Sdn. Bhd. Under the CGPAs, Solarvest and partners will develop and own 2 solar power plants in Lumut, Perak and Kulim, Kedah. The corporate customers have committed to offtaking a combined electricity capacity of 59.98 MW AC for 21 years with a contract for difference (CfD) mechanisms at an agreed pricing. Micron Technology and Bursa Malaysia are among the offtakers.??

Solar PPA in Brazil: Brazilian energy company Prime Energy has secured a solar energy supply contract with Ambiental Paraná, an Aegea concessionaire that operates in 16 municipalities in Paraná in Brazil. A Shell Group company, Prime will honor this commitment to supply 639 MWh from 2 of its solar PV parks in the Municipality of Nova Esperan?a-PR for the concessionaire’s operational units to meet around 13% their total energy consumption. Ambiental operates in the space of sewage treatment facilities. For Aegea, this partnership will help it meet its goal of sourcing 98% of energy from renewable sources.??

Bank consortium backs Cero’s Spanish projects: Macquarie-backed Green Investment Group’s (GIG) European solar energy platform Cero Generation has reached financial close on a solar project portfolio of 5 assets with a combined 244.7 MW capacity in Spain. Banco Sabadell, Rabobank and ING together financed the deal. The 5 utility scale projects are contracted with an international technology company under a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA). Spain’s Elmya Greece’s Metlen Energy & Metals are on board as the EPC contractors and China’s LONGi as the module supplier. Once online, these facilities will deliver over 480 GWh of renewable energy/year. Cero’s counts a portfolio of 26 GW across Europe with over 600 MW in operation or under construction.??

IPO

DAS Solar terminates IPO: Chinese solar PV module and cell supplier DAS Solar said that it has terminated its initial public offering (IPO). It was in December 2023 that the company had submitted its IPO application to list on the ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange announced that due to the withdrawal of the sponsorship application by DAS Solar's IPO sponsor, Guojin Securities, the review of DAS Solar's IPO application for listing on the ChiNext board has been terminated. As per its prospectus, DAS Solar's revenue from 2021 to 2024 was RMB 1.89 billion ($264.01 million), RMB 8.60 billion ($1.20 billion), and RMB 22.72 billion ($3.17 billion), respectively, with net profits attributable to the parent company of RMB -147.06 million (-$20.49 million), RMB 203.26 million ($28.34 million), and RMB 459.87 million ($64.09 million). The company had even planned to invest RMB 5.31 billion ($740.53 million) in a 14 GW n-type TOPCon cells and a 20 GW modules facility, taking RMB 2 billion ($278.82 million) from the funds that it expected to raise from the IPO.

RESTRUCTURING

Restructuring for Yicheng New Energy: Disclosing its restructuring plans, Yicheng New Energy said that it plans to sell its 80.2% stake in Pingmei Longji to China Pingmei Shenma for RMB 874 million ($122 million). At the same time, the company plans to purchase 100% stake in Pingmei Photovoltaic, which is held by holding subsidiary Pingmei Longji, for an amount of RMB 38.3 million ($5.35 million).

TAIYANGNEWS EVENTS

Block #August27, 2024, for TaiyangNews Solar & Sustainability 2024 Virtual Conference

The sustainability of products is gaining attention these days, driven by both government legislation and growing awareness in the society. When you look at solar stakeholders along the value chain both up-and-down-stream, the sector is now quickly embracing everything ESG-related.

In our 2nd TaiyangNews Solar & Sustainability Conference, we will look into the main themes being pursued in the PV sector – from supply chain transparency, carbon footprint reduction in manufacturing, sustainable system operations and how to deal with solar products at the end of their long service life.

The Conference will take place on #August27, 2024, from 09:30 – 12:30 CEST. You can register for #free by clicking on this link: https://taiyangnews.info/our-events/aug-27-2024-taiyangnews-solar-sustainability-2024-conference

We look forward to your presence.

#Solar&Sustainability #SolarPV #SustainableSolar #SolarPower #SolarEnergy #Solar

Block #September9 2024 for RE+ Conference: How to Manufacture Solar Wafers, Cells and Modules Competitively in the United States

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Hosted by TaiyangNews - All About Solar , EUPD Research Energy and RE+, Solar Made in USA 2024 Conference is scheduled to take place on #September9, 2024 (Monday) from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm at the Anaheim Convention Center, California (1 day before the trade show starts).

Below is a quick overview of the #Agenda. For #detailed #Agenda & #Registration, click here: ??https://www.re-plus.com/solar-made-in-the-usa/?

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?????????? ???????? ???? ?????? – ????????????, ????????????????????, ???????? & ???????????????????? ????????????????: Discussion around the ingredients available and needed for Solar Made in USA to happen on a large scale.

??#Speakers: Michael Schmela , TaiyangNews - All About Solar ; Dr. Paul Basore , DOE; Stacy J. Ettinger , Solar Energy Industries Association ; Prof. Dr. Fath Peter , RCT Solutions GmbH

??#PanelDiscussion: Is the US Set to Become the Next Big Global Solar Manufacturing Hub??

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????????’?? ???????????? ?????? ?????????? & ???????? ???????????????????? ???? ?????? ????: Focus on wafer & cell production, the parts of the module value chain that are either fully missing or hardly represented in the US.

?? #Speakers: Prof. Jerry Liao, Leadmicro; QJ Guo, Solamet ; Dr. Dr. Sebastian Gatz , VON ARDENNE

??#PanelDiscussion: How to Speed Up Ingot / Wafer & Cell Production Projects?

?? Panelists: Adam S. Tesanovich , TALON PV ; Terry Jester , Kiwa; Todd Templeton , NorSun ; Moderator: Michael Schmela , TaiyangNews

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?????????????????? ????????-?????????????????????? ???????????? ?????????????????????????? ???? ?????? ????: Focus on the critical components and machinery used in solar module manufacturing today.

?? #Speakers: Martin Ma, ConfirmWare PV Manufacturing Solution ; Paulo Rocha, ATW; Steven Akey, Hangzhou First

?? #PanelDiscussion: What’s Still Needed to Build A True Local Crystalline Module Supply Chain

?? #Panelists: Jim Wood , SEG Solar, Inc. ; Nadeem Haque , Heliene ; Hitesh Doshi , Waaree Group ; Moderator: Michael Schmela , TaiyangNews

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?? ?????????????? ??: ??:???? ???? – ??:???? ???? ?????????????????????????? & ???????????????? ?????? ?????????? ???????? ???? ??????: Spotlight on stakeholders sharing experiences of manufacturing solar products in the US or their solar manufacturing project developments.

?? #Speakers: Markus A.W. Hoehner , EUPD Research Energy ; Thomas Koerner , Canadian Solar Inc. ; John Smirnow , Smirnow Law; Elissa Pierce , Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables

?? #PanelDiscussion: Lessons Learned: How to Set Up and Operate Sustainable US Manufacturing Capacities

#REPlus24 #CleanEnergy #RenewingWhatsPossible #MadeInUSA #SolarManufacturing #SolarWafers #SolarCells #SolarModules #SolarPV #Solar #SolarEnergy #TaiyangNews #EUPD #RE+ #SolarEnergyIndustriesAssociation #SmartElectricPowerAlliance

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