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With the Netherlands receiving more than €21 billion worth of orders after launching a ‘€4-6 billion’ exercise last month, Irish utility the ESB is hoping to ride the wave of investors subscribing to ethical schemes.

The latest government figures show utility scale solar had near-zero growth in 12 months. Although excluded from the Contracts for Difference procurement regime, large scale projects may experience a resurgence thanks to unsubsidized schemes linked to bilateral power supply deals, with the Solar Trade Association predicting 400 MW of such projects may be finalized this year.

At Intersolar Europe in Munich, pv magazine caught up with Solis to speak about the company’s latest inverter products.

Australia’s most iconic building has marked World Environment Day with a series of sustainability announcements, including contracts to source wind and solar power from major projects in the state of New South Wales.

The Japanese government has issued a policy to reduce 80% of vehicle-related emissions, but high-power charging facilities for e-buses should also be aligned with distributed PV generation. Kyocera is now optimizing its virtual power plant technologies for this use case.

The new net metering tariff will be equal to market prices and will go into force as soon as the Albanian government approves it. According to a local interest group led by Albanian company EuroElektra, that could happen within the next two weeks. Overall, the scheme could facilitate the installation of around 200 MW of solar power.

A unit of the Japanese electronics group has finished building a 49 MW solar array in Quang Ngai province, in collaboration with Thailand’s Sermsang Power.

The Portuguese government plans to allocate over 2 GW of PV capacity through two procurement exercises to be held in June and January. Among the potential bidders — who Portugal’s state secretary for energy, João Galamba, expects to meet soon — there is a range of different Portuguese and foreign players of varying sizes.

Tracker and mounting structure supplier Arctech Solar recently presented its new products at Intersolar Europe in Munich. pv magazine dropped by the its display on the trade show floor to talk to the company’s executives about bifacial technology and tracking systems.

Although the Italian PV industry only posted a slight increase compared to the first quarter of the previous two years, the market has continued to grow at an average of around 30 MW per month over the past five years, while still being driven by rooftop solar. More growth is expected from the PPA segment and upcoming auctions. The European Commission still needs to approve a decree regulating the country’s procurement scheme, however.