Policy

There’s a rejuvenated feeling in the UK solar market where a new government is making positive signals and considering key policy changes aimed at speeding up project commissioning. For storage, there’s still serious interest in utility-scale deployment with some significant projects in the pipeline.

The aid will be available to companies producing relevant equipment, such as solar panels, wind turbines, heat-pumps, electrolysers, and equipment for carbon capture usage and storage.

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.

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 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.

The Vietnamese government says it will start a new net-metering scheme for rooftop PV installations next week, limiting the sale of excess electricity to the grid to 20%.

Researchers in Spain have created a novel method to select within a set of water bodies those where the investment in floating PV could be most beneficial. They combined geographic information systems, multi-criteria analysis, and intelligent optimization. The new approach reportedly results up to 8.4% better LCOE compared to conventional methods.

The Spanish government has set a new 2030 solar target of 76 GW in an energy strategy submitted to the European Commission. It aims to cover over 80% of national electricity demand with renewable energy.

Brazil’s National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology (Inmetro) says it has introduced a requirement for inverters to have arc fault circuit interrupters, effective December 2024, to prevent fires and enhance PV system safety.

The Jordanian government says it will cover up to 30% of the cost of buying and installing residential PV systems through its new rebate scheme.