Business Features
11 February 2013
With utility scale solar installations growing at a record pace, the number of acquisitions of operational solar plants is also increasing. In fact, more project acquisitions of solar projects took place in the first three quarters of 2012 than the total number of project acquisitions in any previous year. Financing of operational projects versus preconstruction projects has some discernible benefits for the investor and risk is mitigated as the track record of the plant becomes established and can be used to predict future performance. For the investor or lender to quantitatively assess the potential reduction in risk, the expected annual energy production of the plant should be reevaluated.
Fronius GmbH
The government of India is planning to tap the most talked about solar rooftop segment potential (estimated at 92.7GW) in a big way, adding at least 1000MW capacity by 2017. This will be done by integrating a central subsidy plan under phase 2 of National Solar Mission with initiatives being taken at the state level. In reality, India’s power success story is hindered by limited, inefficient (technically and operationally) and poorly managed grid infrastructure.
In the past five years, the US solar energy industry has experienced sustained growth thanks to rising demand, falling costs, and new financing options. Since 2008, the amount of solar powering our homes, businesses, and military bases has more than quadrupled from 1100 megawatts to more than 6400 megawatts today, which is enough to power more than one million average American households. Existing policy frameworks at the federal and state level, including maintaining and expanding commitments to renewable energy initiatives have spurred and leveraged private sector investments in the solar industry. And we expect 2013 will be another year of record growth for our industry.
Legal issues affect practically all areas of the PV value chain, from world trade cases as they are currently conducted by European and Chinese manufacturers alike, to more practical but no less important issues such as local and domestic laws regarding the acquisition of land to build free field installations. However, until now the most important legal challenge for the PV industry around the globe remains the level of governmental subsidies given for PV installations; be it through a quota system or a FiT. Here, also the reliability of the government plays an important role, as the suspension of all supports for PV systems in Spain early this year has proved.
