Eastern Europe

The Portuguese utility expands its renewable energy business – traditionally dominated by wind – with a new storage station in Romania and the acquisition of a start-up, which offers off-grid home solar solutions in Bangladesh.

For the production of its heterojunction modules, the Russian manufacturer will cooperate with the German PV engineering provider for the supply of stringers and adhesive technology. To this end, Hevel has ordered new stringer systems and layup from Teamtechnik.

At the EU PVSEC in Brussels this week, prominent representatives of the solar industry joined an appeal to rebuild a major European PV production line along the entire value chain. They called on the EU Commission and member states to introduce eco-labels and recycling criteria for solar modules, to stimulate PV expansion and align research policy with the revival of the solar industry.

Vague on detail, the first proposal to build a ground-mounted solar plant in the eastern European country has come from China’s CCCII.

The German module manufacturer is planning a further expansion of capacity in Europe. In France and Armenia, new production lines for solar cells and modules are planned to start this year.

A simulation of Poland’s two upcoming mixed wind/solar auctions held by the Polish wind energy association has shown that wind may prove more competitive than solar, especially in the auction for projects over 1 MW. The real auctions are expected to be launched between November and December.

The Turkish company has signed a framework agreement with the Kazakh Ministry of Energy and with the Turkestan district local authority for the large-scale project, which will be in the southernmost, sunniest part of the country.

The Eastern European country is expected to see between 300 and 400 MW of PV capacity deployed this year. This growth will be primarily driven by the FIT program, which closed in mid-2016. Net metered PV installations up to 50 kW represent another key market driver, while C&I projects between 50 kW to 500 kW have ground to a halt.

Solar DAO, a digital, autonomous, closed-end, utility-scale PV project investment fund, has announced its partnership with Powerchain, decentralized platform for energy storage, which allows prosumers to buy, store and sell energy.

The interested developers are a consortium formed by Fortum and local utility EPCG; Malta-based IREDL; and a domestic group named Montesolar.