Europe

Ecostal Group, a B2B solar specialist, has acquired Swiss PV equipment distributor Solexis. The group says the merger will expand its operations in Switzerland.

KiloWattSol, an independent solar consultancy, says there were 308 hours of negative electricity prices from the start of 2024 to Aug. 23 – more than double the 147 negative hours recorded in 2023.

Researchers in Austria have developed a new predictive control algorithm that can reportedly improve comfort levels in houses equipped with heat pumps. The algorithm also enables price predictions based on analysis of day-ahead electricity prices.

La Croisière Verte is the name of a 13,500 km expedition from the north to south of Africa in a fleet of four Citroën AMI vehicles, each carrying 5,600 W of lightweight PV panels in foldable packs.

The German government says that the H2Mare OffgridWind project in Denmark has connected two electrolyzers to a wind turbine for hydrogen production, while Ontras Gastransport and H2 Energy Europe have agreed to define the technical and commercial framework for hydrogen transportation in its Green Octopus Mitteldeutschland pipeline project.

Cottam Solar Project secures approval through national infrastructure consent process. The 600 MW solar and storage development is the fourth major solar project to secure UK government approval in a three-month period.

This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Filipa Monteiro Martins, Renewables Innovation Unit Manager at Portuguese energy company Galp. She says that inclusion is a critical driver of long-term business success and innovation, especially in the renewable energy industry, where the ability to adapt and evolve is key.

French developer Green Lighthouse Développement says the French authorities have approved its 450 MW agrivoltaic project on 200 hectares of agricultural land in southwestern France.

Researchers in Portugal adopted a new light trapping strategy to build an ultrathin perovskite solar cells that may reportedly have a longer operational lifetime. They utilized an LDS coating combined with a checkerboard photonic front structure to protect the cells against UV-enabled degradation and simultaneously improve UV irradiation.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that atmospheric pattern resulted in higher than average irradiance from the UK to Poland, with solar generation records broken across several regions. However, northern areas like Norway and Scotland saw significantly less sunlight due to wet weather driven by an Icelandic low pressure system. Meanwhile, Italy and Greece, as well as the African Mediterranean coast experienced normal to slightly below-average irradiance, despite enduring record-breaking heatwaves.