The Guardian announced in November that “BP had dropped all plans to build wind farms and other renewable schemes in Britain and is instead concentrating the bulk of its $8bn renewables spending program on the US, where government incentives for clean energy projects can provide a convenient tax shelter for oil and gas revenues”. The ARRA (aka Stimulus Package) should hasten that shift of focus.

Similarly, Fotowatio of Spain today announced its bold move: By buying the assets of Baltimore and San Francisco based Solar Developer MMA Renewable Ventures (MMARV), Fotowatio’s global portfolio will include more than 130 megawatts of operating solar projects in the United States. It might not be a name you’ve heard much about… yet. Fotowatio has invested more than US$880 million (€700 million) in solar projects since 2006 and plans to invest up to US$3.2 billion (€2.5 billion) by 2012 in Spain, Italy and the United States.

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MMA Renewable Ventures, employer of one of our Bloggers, announced earlier this morning that it has fully deployed it’s Solar Fund III, contributing nearly $200 million to the creation of new solar energy.

Knowing the team there fairly well, the news doesn’t surprise me given how capable their well respected engineers and development associates are.  What will be more interesting is how quickly, in this current climate, they can raise new funds to take advantage of depressed module prices and further establish themselves as one of the 900 pound gorillas in the world of Solar and Renewable Finance.

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