Eastern Europe

Econergy and NoFar Energy unveiled their jointly managed 155 MW Rătești PV Park in Romania’s south last week, which is claimed to be the country’s largest PV facility. An Econergy spokesperson told pv magazine that the plant, spread across 170 hectares, will be connected to the electricity grid by the end of the month.

Masdar, the Abu Dhabi-based utility-scale PV project developer, has signed contracts to develop three solar and onshore wind projects in Azerbaijan, with a total capacity of 1 GW.

Germany’s Boreal Light says it has installed a desalination plant in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. It claims that the system – which uses 560 W solar modules to produce 125 cubic meters of clean water per hour – is Europe’s largest PV-powered desalination project.

Created by scientists in Poland, the model is based on GIS and can be adapted to different market conditions. The researchers applied it to the Polish market and found that 3.61% of the country’s available land can host utility-scale PV systems.

As Czechia reaches its solar potential, with impending changes to the country’s legislative landscape ushering in greater utility-scale solar array rollouts, over 5,000 attendees – government ministers, industry experts, and key business stakeholders – descended on Prague this week for the 2023 Smart Energy Forum.

Researchers in Switzerland have looked into three kinds of black ink coating for metallic ribbons used in PV modules. They have compared their visual stability and their effect on electrical performance.

The Bulgarian government has opened public discussion for the country’s first renewable energy auction. Through the procurement exercise, it expects to allocate 1,425 MW of renewable energy power generation capacity and 350 MW of storage.

Polish lawmakers are preparing plans to legislate the sharing of grid connections and regulators are easing the establishment of off-grid, direct-to-consumer power lines but obtaining a permit for a solar site could be about to get more tricky.

PVcase has introduced a new AutoCAD tool for rooftop PV systems, featuring 3D building preparation, layout generation, shading calculation, and electrical design capabilities.

W Energy, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) and W Solar, plans to develop 500 MW of clean energy projects in Tajikistan, including floating PV installations.