Eastern Europe

Stadler says it has wrapped up a hydrogen train test, while Ballard has secured a long-term agreement to supply 1,000 hydrogen fuel cell engines through 2027.

Romania’s OMV Petrom has launched an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tender for the Theia solar project, which it acquired from Danish developer Jantzen Renewables in July 2023.

A Slovenian research group has proposed using a heat pump booster instead of vapor compression technologies in low-temperature district-heating substations and has found that this combination may raise the supply-water temperature from around 32 C to 42 C. In the proposed system configuration ten single-stage Peltier modules were used, each with a maximum cooling power of 165 W and a maximum electric power of 289.2 W.

The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has added a high-resolution solar data set covering Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East on its Renewable Energy Data Explorer tool.

Polish grid operator Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE) has announced its third disconnection of renewable energy capacity this year. This time it has initiated the reduction of 1,201 MW to 1,877 MW of PV in response to oversupply.

Korkia, a Finland-based renewables investor, says that solar projects it is developing with Romania’s Econous Green Energ are set to be licensed and will be ready for construction from next year.

Romania has set a ceiling price of €91 ($99.33)/MWh for solar energy in its first renewables auction. A legal analyst tells pv magazine that this strike price is a good level for the nation’s first contract-for-difference (CfD) auction, but warns that certain aspects of the draft legislation could significantly affect the bankability of the scheme.

Sinovoltaics is studying the changes in the supply chains in manufacturing hubs in Europe and North America to determine site capacity, current and planned, for dozens of manufacturers. The results are being published in free reports.

Albanian researchers say that solar could be key to reducing Albania’s reliance on energy imports, but the nation will need to invest in grid infrastructure, streamline laws, and enhance access to funding to support deployment.

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. (Masdar) has connected the first phase of a 511 MW solar project in Uzbekistan, linking the initial units of two solar plants. Chinese manufacturer TrinaTracker has supplied the plants with 11,248 sets of Vanguard 1P trackers.