IN SOME respects this is a bumper era for solar energy. Last year, for the first time, the world invested more in photovoltaic cells than in coal- and gas-fired power generation combined. This year, new solar installations in America are expected to more than double (see chart ). China, which now has more solar capacity than any other country, plans to triple it by the end of the decade.
Yet this week two of the rich world’s most prominent solar-power developers have been flirting with disaster. Cheered on by yield-hungry creditors and investors, they had expanded too quickly, reliant on heavy borrowing and financial engineering. Not for the first time, some energy firms fooled themselves into believing that newfangled technologies and funding mechanisms could let them defy laws of financial gravity.
On March 29th SunEdison, an American firm that...Continue reading
Source: Business and finance http://ift.tt/1Y24JNG
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