Policy

In a chat with pv magazine at the Key Energy event in Rimini, Roberta Valenziani, of Italian trade body Elettricità Futura, explained the factors preventing Italy’s PV market from having a renaissance. She said the country has Europe’s longest delays and highest costs for obtaining permits for large scale solar.

The latest edition of a clean power jobs survey produced by IRENA and the International Labour Organization has stressed the important role which will need to be played by the public sector if the energy transition’s employment benefits are to be shared equally.

Efforts are being made to come up with a less convoluted approach to planning farm-based solar systems, in the only EU member state which explicitly apportioned funds for agrivoltaics in its post-Covid spending plans.

An investigation into internal controls at the polysilicon maker found the company permitted deals to be signed off solely on paper in certain circumstances and also unearthed no evidence anyone had done their homework before handing over 865 million shares to secure a loan which, GCL says, never materialized in full.

The move will encourage private sector renewables companies to be part of the national energy industry, a representative of the regulator told a recent webinar which considered how to accelerate clean energy roll-out in Africa.

A $40 million solar field which will double the generation capacity of the Omsk region is planned to start generating in December as part of the national government’s clean air ambitions.

A new report by IRENA and the International Labour Organization highlights the employment potential of an ambitious climate strategy and calls for comprehensive policies in support of a just energy transition.

Factories suffering from rationed grid electricity could help drive a boom in on-site solar systems, and recent moves to mandate the retrofitting of PV on existing buildings could also lift the market, as analyst Frank Haugwitz explains.

Norwegian hydropower giant and Europe’s largest renewable energy generator, Statkraft, has published its annual “Low Emissions Scenario”, which describes investment in green projects as “unstoppable”, while calling for a dramatic scaling up for renewables, electrification and green hydrogen.

US data management company Iron Mountain has a growing portfolio of onsite and PPA renewables, and it’s one of the first major corporate firms to track its renewables by the hour as part of an innovative PPA that may serve as a forerunner for widespread 24/7 matching.