Portugal’s PV tenders have generated headlines on the back of world-record tariffs. But the country has failed to add meaningful capacity and is now struggling to establish a workable licensing system. Merchant solar shows enormous potential to drive the market, but will politicians listen?

The Lebanese government has approved 11 licenses for 165 MW of PV capacity. The licenses are part of a 180 MW solar tender that the country initiated in January 2017.

Greece and the United Arab Emirates signed new cooperation agreements this week, including deals focused on renewable energy. The Greek government also introduced a new draft law for energy storage and floating solar, as well as new licensing regime, while noting plans for new renewable power auctions.

Cyprus has launched a new scheme to fund installations of PV arrays and battery systems, with a specific focus on owners of electric vehicles. Greece, meanwhile, has devised a subsidy scheme to support the use of gas for conventional cars.

Greece has published new statistics showing that it installed 792 MW of solar in 2021. However, the country has also announced plans to postpone its coal phase-out date to 2028. 

Electricity generation in the Middle East and Africa could soon support the development of an interconnection between Greece, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt. Ilias Tsagas examines the landscape for this infrastructure mega-project, and the possible benefits for solar.

A conference about the UK’s electricity market showed organizations are considering the future of the country’s energy sector and how to achieve a net zero economy.

One of the first items in the in-tray of the country’s new Socialist Party government must be to unblock Portugal’s seemingly huge appetite for PPA-backed merchant solar sites and to deliver the PV projects which were tendered by the authorities, to global acclaim, in 2019 and 2020.

A row between the Greek ministry of the environment and energy, the country’s electricity utility, and a journalist has shown that Greece still has pro-lignite voices in key posts and that the government must move quickly if it wants to realize its coal phase-out plans.

U.S.-based Husk Power Systems has installed six solar mini-grids in the West African nation and aims to build more than 500 by 2026 with the help of World Bank funding.