Europe

The SeaVolt consortium says it will launch an offshore floating PV demonstrator off the Belgian port of Ostend. The main companies – Tractebel, DEME, Equans and Jan De Nul – say the anchored floating array will collect data for at least a year to scale up the tech.

The United Kingdom’s cumulative installed solar capacity reached 15.13 GW by the end of May, with 480 MW added between January and May 2023.

Enfoil is developing a CIGS thin film custom manufacturing business, targeting building-integrated PV applications, such as powering sensors or track & trace sub-systems in trucks. The company is a spinoff of Hasselt University and imec, the Belgian research institute.

CVE, a French developer, has deployed a solar plant based on PV modules ballasted on the ground. The installation will cover nearly 10% of the overall consumption of an industrial site in Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne, France.

The high temperatures registered in the third week of July caused demand record peaks in Spain and Italy on July 19 and demand increases in other markets. In France, the weekly photovoltaic energy production was the highest in history, but in most markets, solar and wind energy production fell. All these factors, together with the increase in CO2 prices, favored electricity markets prices to be above those of the previous week in most markets.

Soške Elektrarne Nova Gorica is working with Slovenia highway operator Dars to build several PV arrays along Slovenia’s biggest motorway.

Burgerland Energie has deployed a redox flow storage battery from German battery manufacturer CMBlu in the immediate vicinity of a PV-wind power hybrid power plant.

Scientists in Ireland investigated the effect of shunt resistance on a PV cell’s electrical performance. The group says its finding could potentially lead to the development of models for early detection of various forms of cell degradation, allowing for intervention to repair or replace components before major power losses occur.

PVcase, a Lithuania-based solar project software company, raised $100 million to expand the market for its platform and extend its capability.

Ron Shen, vice president of GoodWe, recently spoke with pv magazine about the company’s transition from a product supplier to an end-to-end solution supplier.