Land scarcity and renewables prices have been long considered significant hurdles for renewable developments in the hilly Balkans. Still, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) sees solid opportunities in floating PV on public dams, PV modules on rooftops, and renewables projects in landfills and disused coal mines.

BP, Iberdrola and Enagás will power a 20 MW electrolyzer with 40 MW of solar in Spain. Automotive manufacturers Hyundai, Stellantis, Toyota and BMW sent a letter to European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans asking to support the continued expansion of a 700 bar hydrogen refuelling network in Europe.

The funds will be part of the EU Covid-19 recovery package. Overall, the Italian government expects to deploy 2 GW of agrivoltaics and 2 GW through energy communities.

Big German conglomerates such as Siemens, RWE and Vattenfall keep pushing for green hydrogen development through different projects. Germany’s first offshore hydrogen pipeline is being planned by RWE itself, Shell, Gascade and Gasunie, and should be commissioned in 2035. Siemens is planning hydrogen projects in the 5 MW to 50 MW range, for industrial and mobility applications.

Italy’s Council of State has issued a new ruling that bodes well for renewables development. The consultative body has clarified a number of principles related to permits, but caution is still required.

French train manufacturer Alstom said that its Coradia iLint train is now ready for commercial deployment and the Chilean government launched a call for green hydrogen projects. Furthermore, several developments for fuel cell electric vehicles were announced.

Storegga, Shell and Harbour Energy want to set up a 20 MW blue hydrogen production facility in the U.K. Australia’s Origin Energy wants to build a hydrogen facility at the Port of Townsville, in Queensland. South African company Sasol and Toyota South Africa Motors have announced a partnership to “commence exploration of the development of a green hydrogen mobility ecosystem in South Africa,” starting with zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell (FC) heavy-duty, long-haul trucks.

New research by Aurora Energy Research expects new unsubsidized solar PV capacity to grow to 5 GW by 2025, 12 GW by 2030, 32 by 2035, and 57 GW by 2040.

Several heavyweights in Germany have announced projects to move forward with green hydrogen. RWE, Uniper and Bosch have all announced large-scale projects and the German government has allocated €52 million for hydrogen research. The European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB) initiative is proposing a hydrogen network of 39,700 km by 2040, with further growth expected after 2040.

Furthermore, Michelin said it wants to become a world leader in hydrogen fuel cell systems and ScottishPower aims to build a green hydrogen plant at a wind power complex. Moreover, a study led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory suggested new strategies to design perovskite materials to speed up the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a process that frees up molecular oxygen from water and is key for hydrogen production.