Hungary

The solar plant developer, which is now based in the States, was upbeat in its first-quarter figures but balance sheet borrowings remain a concern.

In its next procurement exercise, the Hungarian government will allocate 77% of the available renewable subsidies that it failed to assign in March’s auction.

Hungarian tech company Platio has developed solar pavement for outdoor applications in urban environments, homes, office buildings, shopping malls, and public infrastructure projects. The pavement consists of solar tiles that may cost between €50 and €80, depending on the size and characteristics of projects.

Solar developers secured 131.4 MW of the capacity awarded in the auction, while a biomass installation accounted for the remaining 500 kW of capacity. The national energy regulator will provide 15-year feed-in premium payments to the winning projects.

The cell is being manufactured by Switzerland-headquartered Ecosolifer with a manufacturing line provided by heterojunction specialist Meyer Burger at a 100 MW factory located in Hungary. The claimed efficiency is yet to be confirmed by an independent party.

Renewables generated more electricity than coal in the EU for the first time ever in 2019, driving the sharpest reduction in the European power sector’s carbon emissions in three decades, according to a new report.

Differing finance costs across the continent are likely to see wind-rich, high electricity demand nations such as Germany, France, Austria and Belgium forge ahead with renewables at the expense of countries with plenty of sun but where borrowing is expensive, according to a German study.

Researchers from Hungary have analyzed the thermal behavior of different types of PV module via thermography, and claim to have shown that theoretical models are insufficient to measure the maximum, minimum, and average temperatures of the panels. According to their analysis, glass-glass modules without frame showed the highest temperatures, while the lowest temperatures were measured for polycrystalline glass-backsheet panels with frame.

Of 169 pre-selected projects, one is a project for landfill gas production; the remaining 348.5 MW of generation capacity comes from solar projects. The auction’s final results are expected in spring.

By this time next year we may be able to wave goodbye to that old chestnut about renewables endangering security of supply. Elsewhere, the price of lithium – and the products it goes into – could go either way after tanking this year.