This week, a tone of bold optimism was clear from the outset, in line with the size of the event, the venue and the bustling host city of Shanghai.

Polysilicon giant OCI kicked off the 2016 SNEC International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference and Exhibition on a high note by unveiling plans to provide $400m of equity financing for 1GW of solar capacity — roughly half of it in China — by 2018.

And