Eastern Europe

The cell is being manufactured by Switzerland-headquartered Ecosolifer with a manufacturing line provided by heterojunction specialist Meyer Burger at a 100 MW factory located in Hungary. The claimed efficiency is yet to be confirmed by an independent party.

The 15-year payments will come into force when new renewables FITs are published in the country’s official journal within the next few days. The government wants to allocate 15 MW of solar facilities ranging in size from 10 kW to 1 MW through the scheme, with larger projects having to compete in auctions.

The government has suggested PV plant operators accept a ‘voluntary’ 12.5% reduction in feed-in tariffs. If developers refuse, policymakers could impose 15-25% cuts, albeit with payment contracts extended five years. The drastic measures are being considered to reduce the cost of the state-owned Guaranteed Buyer body, which purchases all electricity generated in Ukraine from renewable energy facilities.

The ceiling price for solar and wind power has been set at €84.98/MWh. It is expected around 30 MW of generation capacity will be allocated and solar projects ranging in size from 100 kW to 2 MW will be entitled to participate.

Around 240 MW of new installations were deployed from October 2018 to the end of September and approximately 70 MW were installed in the third quarter of last year alone, according to the responsible state body.

The central Asian nation and the International Finance Corporation are seeking proposals for two 200 MW solar parks planned in the Samarkand and Jizzakh regions. The projects will be awarded 25-year power purchase agreements.

Utility ESM is seeking potential partners for the construction of two 50 MW solar facilities at its shuttered coal power plant near Kičevo.

Polish power providers Enea and Energa have suspended construction financing for a new 1 GW coal power plant in northeastern Poland. According to the Europe Beyond Coal campaign, this could mark the beginning of the end for the $1.6 billion project. The two companies said their decision depended mostly on the new EU policy for the electricity sector and a lack of external financing.

Researchers have integrated A3B5 semiconductors on a silicon substrate in a prototype solar cell and claim the technique could enable the production of III-V solar cells with conversion efficiencies of around 40%.

Chemists from Russia’s RUDN University have developed a series of compounds based on methylammonium iodide and iodine which they say could be used to make perovskite solar devices without toxic solvents. That would enable perovskite cells to be manufactured without chemical by-products.