Community

One of the project architects behind a solar power system in a southern Lebanese village tells pv magazine that the 200-panel array – which pumped water from an underground well for roughly 400 families – was allegedly destroyed earlier this month by Israeli forces. The community needs help rebuilding it, he says.

Researchers have looked into the impact of potential regulated charge exemptions on two types of energy communities in 39 European countries. They have found that communities with collectively owned PV systems achieve greater savings.

Teleson has launched a sales and distribution platform for PV projects. The mobile and phone app is available for the company’s German-based customers.

Against the backdrop of its war with Hamas, Israel has started allowing villages to install solar fences to improve protection for residents.

Europe’s solar installation levels are exceeding expectations and are on track to grow 30% this year from 2022, according to Rystad Energy.

A group of scientists across the world have created a list of recommendations that can help create solar neighborhoods. In a recently published study they highlight the importance of legislative frameworks and advanced computing.

Germany’s Boreal Light says it has installed a desalination plant in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. It claims that the system – which uses 560 W solar modules to produce 125 cubic meters of clean water per hour – is Europe’s largest PV-powered desalination project.

With metropolitan-borough and city councils in England and Wales already driving decarbonization initiatives, local government bodies could do so much more if given adequate powers and funding.

The UK’s largest transmission system operator, UK Power Networks, recently launched an 850 MW flexible electricity tender. The company’s Distribution System Operator’s head of flexibility markets, Alex Howard, tells pv magazine that the tender will manage demand growth and help get more renewable projects in a ‘big queue’ connected to the network.

Researchers in Sweden investigated the complex non-linear tradeoffs between capacity expansion costs and reliability levels of off-grid PV mini-grids and found that capacity expansion based solely on cost-minimization may result in several reliability issues.