Europe

The manufacturer’s insolvency administrator has declared the investor search over. By March at the latest, all production equipment at the German module factory in Freiberg, as well as the buildings themselves, should come under the hammer.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is seeking consultants to support Ukrainian authorities in setting new renewable energy targets and to give advice on how to shape the procurement process for large-scale renewables projects.

The opportunities for power-to-gas have long interested the solar community, but large-scale projects have been exceptionally rare. The outgoing CEO of SolarPower Europe, James Watson, has presided over a transformative period at the organization, and departed in January to head up Eurogas – right at the point the region’s solar sector is set for revival. Advancing a power-to-gas agenda, Watson tells pv magazine editor in chief Jonathan Gifford, will be a big part of his new challenge.

A few weeks after launching the sale of its “Solstrale” modules in Germany, the Swedish furniture giant also began offering online its PV panels and systems throughout Italy.

The French retailer will use energy generated by the PV installations exclusively for self-consumption. The projects will be developed by French developer Urbasolar.

Audax Renovables has signed an agreement with Welink under which the Spanish company will buy – for 20 years at a fixed price – the energy produced by solar facilities with a total 708 MW of generation capacity that Welink will develop in Spain and Portugal. German group Allianz will buy the solar plants after completion.

Under the new rules, expected to come into force by the end of the year, Russian residential PV system owners will be able to sell excess power to the grid. The provisions were discussed for almost two years before yesterday’s vote.

The panel fab, with a production capacity of 200 MW, is in Vinnytsia, central Ukraine. The factory’s capacity is expected to double by the end of the year.

Precision Surfacing Solutions is paying $50 million to take over most of the production facilities as well as 100 employees working in wafer technology in Thun and in service locations worldwide. Meyer Burger wants to focus on PV cell coating and interconnection technologies.

Russian module manufacturer Hevel will deploy 1.2 MW of solar at an hydropower facility operated by local energy provider Rushydro in the Amur region. The solar installation is intended to help the company better manage the power plant, while also reducing its operational costs.