Europe

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.

The Netherlands-administered Caribbean island last year saw almost half its power demand provided by a 4.1 MW solar-plus-storage plant, commissioned in late 2017. The facility generated 6.5 million kWh of the 14.3 million kWh of electricity consumed in the territory in 2018.

The UK’s opposition Labour Party has pledged to almost treble the country’s solar PV capacity, taking it to 35GW by 2030.

The Italian fossil fuel company is not hanging around when it comes to diversifying into PV, with almost 1.5 GW of generation capacity plugged in since the start of last year.

The Chinese manufacturer has officially unveiled its high-efficiency product in Melbourne after celebrating a 13.6 MW panel order from the nascent Hungarian PV market.

The Swiss equipment maker has announced a fresh, CHF18 million order from Oxford PV but the news may have been strategically timed ahead of today’s update that it has completed the sale of its headquarters building.

1MW plant fired up at Gazprom Neft oil refinery in Russia. Photon Energy turns on eight PV plants totalling 5.6MWp in Hungary. Jinko delivers 13.6MW of modules to Photon Energy plants in Hungary.

A German start-up achieved more than 99% efficiency when charging a vehicle developed by the Bochum University of Applied Sciences with electricity from solar cells. Ambibox’s DC charging technology was used in a research project in the Australian desert.

Analyst WoodMac has spelled out the urgent need to decarbonize the global hydrogen production industry. While the fuel can offer a sustainable grid balancing act for intermittent renewables, in its current fossil-fuel driven form it is pumping out more than 800 tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year.

The long-duration energy storage provider plans to eventually build a portfolio of 50 MW/250 MWh liquid air systems throughout the United Kingdom.