Europe

Swedish developer Alight plans to build a 90 MW solar park in southwestern Finland. The company says the announcement is a big step toward developing 1.5 GW of PV projects in the country by the end of this year.

The result was confirmed by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH). The cell also achieved an open-circuit voltage of 709.5 mV, a short circuit density of 11,355 mA, and a fill factor of 82.04%.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that, thanks to warm temperatures and relatively sunny skies, Finland and Sweden had irradiance up to 30%, which unusually resulted in higher total irradiance than the more southerly UK and France. On the other side of the Baltic Sea, Poland, the Baltic States, and neighbouring countries also experienced irradiance up to 30% above the long-term average.

Austrian researchers performed tests on thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) encapsulant as an alternative to conventional ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer and polyolefin elastomers (POE) to assess its use in glass-glass modules. They report that all of the TPO specimens outperformed EVA and POE, especially TPO-3.5 encasulants.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has created a solar atlas to identify rooftop PV potential in Germany. This new open-access online platform uses aerial photographs and geodata processed with machine-learning methods to determine solar energy potential for the country’s entire building stock of around 20 million units.

At a time of growing demand for battery energy storage, pv magazine spoke with Eloisa de Castro, CEO of Enerpoly, a Swedish company preparing to launch the world’s first zinc-ion battery megafactory on its home turf. Having solved rechargeability issues, the company expects its safe and sustainable zinc-ion batteries, which rely solely on a European supply chain, to increase their market share in the years to come.

Soren, the French environmental agency, has warned that uninstalled panels are often resold or exported through loosely regulated reuse channels, especially to developing countries.

The latest smart meter installation data for Great Britain reveals a slowdown in deployment. Suppliers have been tasked with providing three in four households with smart meters by the end of 2025 – failure could result in financial penalties.

France-based Iko is launching Iko Excel Solar, a lightweight PV solution for roofs that cannot withstand excessive loads. The 18.3%-efficient module weighs approximately 2.5 kg/m².

Fronius has revealed plans to cut 350 jobs due to “persistently weak sales” from its solar energy division. The Austrian inverter manufacturer significantly expanded production and hired new employees in 2022 and 2023.