Europe

As the solar industry digests yesterday’s announcement by Theresa May of a net zero carbon ambition by 2050, developer Solarcentury says Downing Street is hugely underestimating the role PV can play in achieving that milestone.

This year’s Earth Overshoot Day falls on Friday, August 2. The current UN report on biodiversity protection does not report anything good. At least two reasons for our children to demonstrate on Fridays so that we not only talk, but act, says Ralf Schnitzler, project developer, solar parks, Bejulo GmbH. He believes that now is the time to take the energy revolution seriously. Below, he lays out his arguments and ideas on how the energy transition and other transformations could be possible with solar parks.

Representatives of the UK solar industry have praised prime minister Theresa May’s plan to amend the 2008 Climate Change Act with a 2050 net zero emissions target while urging the government to articulate how it will achieve its goal. In particular, the industry has pointed to the need to eliminate barriers that continue to hinder deployment of solar and battery storage systems.

Italian industrial group Maccaferri, the parent company of the insolvent EPC contractor, has also filed for insolvency for another three units of its energy business.

Winfried Wahl, head of product management at Longi Solar spoke to pv magazine about how the HiMo4 has a 15% higher power output than the previous iteration in the series.

Leaving with a last hurrah, Brexit casualty prime minister Theresa May has announced a statutory instrument to amend the Climate Change Act of 2008. The law currently prescribes an emissions cut of 80% by 2050, from a 1990 baseline. The new law will aim for net zero emissions by 2050, making the U.K. the first G7 nation to pass such legislation.

A report on the prospects for a mooted $2.6tn electric vehicle market over the next decade says PHEVs – part electric, part gas-guzzling – are already losing market share rapidly to pure electric rivals, and will be extinct by 2030.

The 21st Africa Energy Forum, this year in Lisbon, kicked off yesterday and will run until Friday. The meeting offers an insight into the continent’s energy markets.

Three projects with generation capacities of 5.6-6 MW were pre qualified for a 5.6 MW capacity procurement and Finnish utility Fortum secured the only PV project selected. The capex figure offered by solar developers was lower than that for 71 MW of wind power allocated and lower than for previous PV projects.

Projects with capacity 10-50 MW can compete for grid connection with a voltage of 15-60 kV. Projects applying for a connection with a higher voltage will have to have more than 50 MW of generation capacity.