The Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC) approved a loan guarantee of up to $230 million to support construction of Luz del Norte, a 141-megawatt solar plant in Chile, which is being built by Arizona-based First Solar. Since 2013, OPIC has approved $900 million in loan guarantees for six renewable energy projects in Chile, making the U.S. the largest lender for renewable energy in the country, according to The Hill.

Clean Edge this week released its annual Clean Energy Trends 2014 report (download for free here), which includes tracking, forecasting and market sizing of the global solar, wind, and biofuels markets, analysis on solar PV pricing, public market performance, venture capital investments, and energy capacity additions. For 2014 the report also features global figures for LEED buildings and EV/hybrid vehicles. The authors highlight the following as five key trends to watch: 

• Enlightened Utilities Begin To Embrace Distributed Energy Assets
• Cities Lead Climate Charge by Focusing on Regional Carbon Reduction
• Net Zero Energy Buildings Gain Ground
• Internet-Enabled Clean-Tech Startups Define a New Sector
• Vertical Farming Sprouts in Cities Around the World

In 2013, the US added nearly twice as much solar generation capacity as coal—2,936 MW of solar compared to 1,543 MW of coal—according to data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Brazilian presidential candidate, Eduardo Campos, proposed incentives for renewable energy in a set of guidelines outlining his new coalition’s policies. The guidelines include tax, fiscal and credit incentives to spur wider use of clean energy, according to Bloomberg. Campos is currently the governor of Pernambuco state, which held Brazil's first solar-only auction in December 2013. Former environment minister Marina Silva, best known as a champion for conservation of the Amazon forest, forged an alliance in October 2013 with Campos’s Brazilian Socialist Party.

The Brazilian state of Pernambuco held Brazil's first solar-only auction on Dec. 27, 2013. A total of 122.82MW of solar projects were approved at a final clearing price of $98/MWh over a 20 year contract. Competing in the auction were 34 project bidders – six from Brazil along with others based in China, Germany, Italy and Spain.

The final clearing price of $98/MWh was above the range that has been suggested by solar industry representatives ($83 to $87/MWh) yet it was lower than the ceiling price of $109/megawatt-hour set by the state, indicating a win-win for both the solar industry and electricity customers. According to the Pernambuco government, the solar auction attracted BRL597 million ($253 million) in investments. The winning projects have to be installed within 18 months and are expected to generate thousands of construction jobs.

The six winning contracts in Pernambuco state were awarded as follows:

• Italian renewable energy developer Enel Green Power: two 5 MW plants in Tacaratu.
• The local subsidiary of German renewable energy company Sowitec: 30 MW plant in Santa Maria da Boa Vista.
• Brazilian company Kroma Comercializadora de Energia Ltda: 29.2 MW plant in Flores.
• Brazilian company Cone Concierge S/A: 22.8 MW plant in Cabo de Santo Agostinho.
• Chinese-Spanish company Sun Premier Holding Participações Ltda:  29.7 MW PV plant in Joaquim Nabuco.

Brazil currently has only approximately 20 MW of installed solar and virtually no grid-connected solar. GTM solar research analyst Adam James terms the Pernambuco auction a "huge step forward" that places Brazil firmly in the running to become a dominant force in the Latin America PV market alongside Mexico and Chile in coming years. Commenting on the Pernambuco auction, Frost & Sullivan energy and environmental research analyst Vinicius Vargas told PV Tech that further state level auctions were likely in Brazil in 2014, rather than national-level auctions.

Enel Green Power, a unit of Italy’s biggest power utility, will build two solar plants and a wind farm in Chile with total capacity of 161 MW, according to Bloomberg. The projects will cost about $320 million and are expected to begin operations by the first half of 2015. Power will be sold at a rate of $128 a megawatt-hour, according to a statement from the company. Enel is currently constructing Chile’s largest solar farm in the northern Atacama desert. The “Diego de Almagro” plant will have a total installed capacity of 36 MW, according to Enel.

SolEnergy Farms, together with Perfect Energy and Solar Horizon, will invest $150m in solar energy, with the aim of producing 60 MW in El Salvador, according to Power Engineering International. Initially, $35m will be invested in a 10 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in the municipality of Tecoluca, in the central department of San Vicente. Sol Energy also indicated that it was considering investing an additional $40m in a second phase to produce and sell 40 MW to AES, the private utility.

Three Brazilian industry associations, The Brazilian Association of Independent Power Producers (APINE), the Industry Association of Cogeneration (COGEN), and the Brazilian Electrical and Electronics Industry Association (ABINEE), are preparing to send the government a proposal for solar only auctions. The three 500MW auctions will be held in 2014, 2015, and 2016, according to COGEN. Solar energy would be supplied for 25 years starting in 2016.

As reported in PV-Tech, executive vice president of COGEN, Leonardo Calabró, said a reasonable price for the auction to offer is BRL190 (US$83) to BRL200 (US$87), per MWh, as solar is not yet competitive with wind and other energy sources in Brazil. He said it was therefore unfair for solar to compete in this year's A-3 and A-5 energy auctions; the first national auctions open to include solar projects. The proposed plan also includes two auctions for other renewable energy projects, in 2015 and 2016, which could expand to include biomass, wind and hydro.

The latest edition of Greenpeace's Energy Revolution study for Brazil (in Portuguese) offers an ambitious outlook for the development of solar photovoltaic (PV). The report projects that the country could install as much as 2.8 GW of photovoltaic solar capacity by 2020, up to 24 GW by 2030, and up to 100 GW by 2050. (More on Brazil's solar PV outlook here). Overall, the study projects that the country's electricity mix in 2050 could consist of hydropower (40%), wind (21%), solar PV (13%), solar thermal (10%), biomass (7%), natural gas (7 %), and tidal (1%).

An analysis of data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) shows that in the first half of 2013, the U.S. added 959 megawatts (MW) of wind, 979 MW of solar, and 116 MW of biomass. The total new installed capacity from these renewable sources (2,054 MW) exceeded new coal power capacity (1,579 MW) but was less than half of new natural gas capacity (4,852 MW).