Belgium

Flanders’ Ministry of Energy intends to make it easier for renewable energy suppliers to sell power to a final customer through a direct connection. This is expected to encourage industrial customers and public entities to increase consumption from clean energy sources.

Scientists at European solar research organization, Solliance have announced the achievement of 14.5% conversion efficiency on a perovskite module. The module uses a glass substrate, and the efficiency was measured on an aperture area of 144 cm².

The funds are part of a €100 million investment plan. The pilot projects will be developed on water surfaces that are not utilized for other purposes.

Belgium market update: Once among Europe’s leaders in solar PV deployment, with more than 1 GW of capacity added in its peak year of 2011, Belgium’s market lost momentum following the abrupt closure of generous subsidy programs. In recent years, driven by its residential PV segment, the country has experienced a solar comeback, which became particularly prominent in the year just passed.

Through the platform Zonnegids, the Flemish Ministry of Energy seeks to connect developers of commercial and industrial PV projects with private citizens that want to invest in solar, but have no surface available.

On February 25, Belgium recorded the maximum amount of electricity produced by solar PV. Overall, it acounted for an impressive 21% of the country’s electricity consumption.

‘TheBattery’ storage system of the Dutch provider of high and low voltage equipment, Alfen, will be used by the Belgian power distributor to store solar power produced at its logistical center in Lokeren, Flanders.

A few days after the first grid-connected off-shore solar PV project was announced in the Netherlands, the Belgian government has unveiled plans to make the North Sea a solar energy hub.

While new PV additions in 2017 totaling 264 MW, the country’s cumulative PV capacity had reached 3.8 GW. The market’s main driver remains residential PV.

Almost all of last year’s newly installed PV capacity comes in the form of residential PV systems not exceeding 10 kW, installed under net metering.