The financial arm of engineering group GE doubled its investment commitment in solar projects to $1.4billion (£0.9bn) last year, it announced yesterday.

GE Energy Financial Services’ now has one-gigawatt’s worth of solar power spanning 48 solar plants in six countries: Australia, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United States.

Alex Urquhart, president and CEO said: “We started last year with the goal of increasing our investments in solar power given improving solar technologies and decreasing costs, and have exceeded our own expectations by doubling our portfolio, investing in attractive projects across the globe.”

The news suggests there is still confidence in the American solar market despite the prominent failure of some American solar firms such as Solyndra which filed for bankruptcy last year.