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The European Heat Pump Association’s (EHPA) recent two-day event in Brussels came as heat pump sales across 13 European countries fell 47% year on year. Attendees discussed how policy and the industry can reverse the decline, stressing the need to better communicate the benefits of heat pumps to customers.

Korean utility KEPCO completed a 978 MW battery project that us billed as Asia’s largest battery energy storage system for grid stabilization purposes.

Tongwei has landed a 1.17 GW solar panel order for Saudi Arabia’s Muwahy project, led by ACWA Power.

In what could be Europe’s first, FuturEnergy Ireland has proposed a project that could store energy for up to 100 hours and be operational for 30 years.

This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Deanna Greenhalgh, Director of Development at SAS Energy, EDF Renewables UK & Ireland C&I. She says that, earlier in her career, she sometimes felt that her knowledge and experience weren’t acknowledged, believed or expected by others. “I think this was a combination of being both young and female in what historically was a male-dominated industry, where clients, colleagues, and suppliers were more used to interacting with older men,” she states.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says the result represents a 12% year-on-year decline. The figure has fallen 90% since the start of 2010.

The 41st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (EU PVSEC) will draw to a close in Vienna this afternoon. Discussions at this year’s event leave little doubt that solar installations will continue to see impressive growth over the coming years. All week there has been plenty of optimism around new policy and technical innovations driving more solar into both electricity grids and urban and rural environments. For Europe, however, the lack of any meaningful capacity for manufacturing these promising technologies locally, puts something of a dampener on things.

The European Commission says only one member state, Denmark, has transposed provisions covering permissions for renewable energy projects into national law. It has launched infringement procedures on 26 other countries and has given a two-month deadline.

Western New York Energy says it will install an industrial steam-generating heat pump at its ethanol plant in Medina, New York, with a maximum output temperature of 215 C and a coefficient of performance of 2.7.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that August was an extraordinary month for solar energy production in the Southeastern states, while regions like the Midwest and Northeast experienced cloudier conditions and lower irradiance.