Europe

A study from Sweden seeks to consider how PV could be sympathetically installed on historic buildings. The researchers propose a target-based approach for assessing panel visibility.

Iberdrola’s record investment into renewables and networks is outperforming expectations, freeing the utility to invest even more creating a “virtuous circle of growth”, the company’s chairman has said.

Where seasonal storage is paramount, hydrogen comes into play. Under-the-radar solar market Sweden has presented its hydrogen projects and technological solutions to overcome the country’s natural solar barriers.

Italian asset manager Green Arrow Capital (GAC) has agreed to acquire a 320MW portfolio of renewable energy projects from London-based Quercus Investment Partners for an undisclosed sum.

Origis Energy USA announced it has selected Renewable Energy Systems to construct the Origis Energy Tanglewood Solar project, a 57.5-MWAC solar farm in Mitchell County, Georgia. Origis Energy developed the solar site as one of the facilities under the Georgia Power Renewable Energy Development Initiative (REDI) serving the utility’s customers participating in the Commercial and Industrial REDI (C&I REDI) program. This contract represents the first construction partnership between Origis Energy and RES. Origis Energy will own and operate the facility.

Luminous Energy has commenced connection works on its 162MWac solar farm in Australia, with the developer eyeing up 1.2GW of works across multiple markets.

After several years of stagnation, Spain has started to see a revival in its PV market, writes IHS Markit’s Maria Chea. The country’s newfound growth has been due to a combination of tender and private PPA projects, along with decreasing component costs.

The French energy giant will provide supermarket Tesco with electricity from 17 rooftop PV installations and two wind farms for a renewables portfolio generation capacity of 59 MW. The groceries retailer has announced plans to install 187 solar rooftops.

U.S. oil major Chevron did not respond to pv magazine’s questions. Exxon Mobil and BP did not produce figures for their clean energy investment activity and Total responded only with its ‘low carbon electricity’ spending. Shell stated it had invested €1.6 billion in clean energy from late 2016 up to June.

Nordic renewables giant Statkraft has confirmed its entry into Ireland’s nascent solar power market, acquiring nine solar projects in the country.

BayWa r.e. has taken two utility-scale floating solar projects to the finish line in the Netherlands, bringing a sizeable installed capacity boost to the segment in Europe.

The Swiss solar equipment maker has already sold its corporate headquarters this week as it aims to generate a fighting fund until the hoped-for returns of a European PV manufacturing renaissance materialize.

The manufacturing facility, idled a few years ago, will produce bifacial modules. The company claims panel efficiency exceeds 20.5% and the factory has an annual production capacity of around 200 MW.

The regulations will come into effect on January 1 and will improve upon the regime introduced in 2014. The new provisions will for the first time provide a legislative framework for energy communities and storage deployment.

The Norwegian power company acquired the projects for around $17.3 million. The transaction indicates interest in large scale solar is on the rise in Ireland and unsubsidized projects are viable.