Europe

France has marked progress with its programme to roll out solar in an area hosting its oldest nuclear plant, selecting its first batch of PV project winners.

The International Renewable Energy Association says the integration of hydrogen into the energy transition will not happen overnight and electrolysis costs will not be halved until the 2040s. That hydrogen and related products could revolutionize the world energy landscape, however, is not in doubt.

The new generation capacity comes from three 50 MW solar projects Spanish energy company Naturgy secured in an auction by the Spanish government in 2017. The installations are near Ciudad Real, in the central-southern region of Castilla-La Mancha.

Athens-based policy group The Green Tank labelled Greece’s decision “historic” while Europe Beyond Coal, an alliance of civil society groups working to make Europe coal free by 2030 said Hungary should target a more ambitious 2025 phase-out.

The European Investment Bank and the Netherlands Development Finance Company have each provided €53 million for the Radiant and Eldosol solar projects.

As 2019 enters its final quarter, the solar industry continues to face headwinds, even as the markets for solar deployment in Europe, the United States, and Australia remain strong. Paula Mints of SPV Market Research takes us through what to expect up until 2021.

The government of Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha region has boasted about the territory’s solar credentials at the launch of an auction-backed utility-scale complex.

Solar project milestones helped Neoen achieve a marked profit boost in the first half of 2019, culminating in the addition of more than 1GW to its clean energy portfolio.

The world is witnessing an “organic nuclear phaseout” partly precipitated by a drop in solar and wind costs, according to a new report that posits that nuclear power is too slow to build and too expensive to run to effectively fight climate change.

Macquarie Group intends to build a 20GW renewables pipeline over the next five years through its Green Investment Group (GIG), the green finance bank it purchased from the British government in 2017.

pv magazine’s UP campaign aims to highlight industry movers who embrace carbon reduction and the circular economy in their operations and Swiss BIPV manufacturer 3S Solar Plus boasts an impressive sustainability record.

State-owned power company Elektrani na Severna Makedonija, which is developing a 10 MW solar project at its coal plant in Oslomej, is planning to stop seeking a coal alternative to its depleted lignite mine and to instead expand the solar scheme to fully replace an ageing 125 MW thermal plant.

Scientists from Russia’s NUST MISIS institute and the University of Rome have discovered a two dimensional titanium carbide can improve the performance of a halide perovskite solar cell when added in microscopic amounts across the various cell layers.

The Chinese module manufacturer has provided Cheetah panels for the Talasol project in the municipality of Talaván, near Cáceres in the southern Spanish region of Extremadura.

Seraphim Solar System Co has turned to an existing Italian partner to try and secure a slice of the country’s PV market, poised for a multi-gigawatt boost within a decade.