Finland

Energy company EPV Energy is planning to build a 100 MW solar park to replace peat energy production. Peers Wärtsilä and Vantaa Energy are planning a power-to-gas facility to produce carbon-neutral synthetic biogas using electricity and carbon dioxide from a waste-to-energy plant.

Appetite may have been lacking among private investors – at a time when global stocks are tanking amid Covid-19 and global recession fears – but the eco-friendly new Finnish government, and neighboring administrations, have stepped in to fill the breach.

Valoe Corporation has extended its €3.5m convertible bonds issuance but with investors fleeing to safe havens and Lithuania yesterday announcing COVID-19 quarantine measures, hopes of getting cell manufacturing off the ground in Vilnius this month appear unrealistic.

A convertible bond issuance by Valoe Corp is due to expire on Sunday and the board has already been forced to sign up for more than 40% of the investment. The module maker, which is still attempting to pay for a cell line acquired from Solitek last year, has been announced as a technology partner by Munich-based Sono Motors.

The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity said on Monday that unidentified hackers recently targeted its computer networks.

European Parliament groupings, renewable energy associations and climate activists have voiced disappointment at the EU Climate Law officially unveiled yesterday. Lack of a raised emission-reduction ambition to 2030 is at the heart of the opposition, with critics saying the plan will be insufficient to help prevent global temperatures rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

A European research team has developed a dye-sensitized PV cell based on a copper iodide complex. The device was conceived for use in self-powered and internet of things devices.

Solar has a small but increasingly important role to play in the Nordic energy transition. And while there is still a gap in PV cost-competitiveness across some markets, interest in solar facades, BIPV solutions and C&I applications is growing.

A study from Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology has predicted solar and other renewables can provide a global energy jobs revolution – just as four European operations revealed recent struggles.

The chief executive of the Finnish manufacturer – which this month missed another deadline to complete payment for the Lithuanian cell factory it acquired from Solitek – has insisted the €3.5 million convertible bond issue which was today extended by three months will not determine the fate of his company.