The New South Wales Department of Planning & Environment has approved three separate solar projects amounting to 492MW capacity, including one project with 100MWh of battery storage.
Australia's Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has made its largest equity investment in renewable energy, with AU$100 million (US$72 million) in the Australian Renewables Income Fund (ARIF), aiming to encourage institutional investors to further expand their reach into clean energy.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will no longer finance thermal coal mining or coal-fired electricity generation and will focus instead on renewable energy as part of its new five-year decarbonisation energy strategy.
Specialist gallium arsenide (GaAs) PV manufacturer Alta Devices, a subsidiary of Hanergy Group, has achieved another new solar cell conversion efficiency record of 29.1%, which was certified by Fraunhofer ISE CalLab.
PV inverter supplier SMA Solar is to lay off 425 full-time staff and discontinue China as a location as part of a restructuring plan announced in September in order to return the company to profitability quickly.
