Italy

That was just one of the revelations of the latest Dentons’ Guide to renewables investment in Europe, which also noted solar plants could be switched off in Slovakia, Ireland could go either way on clean power pricing, and Luxembourg is struggling with a surprising headache.

Italy’s Saipem is planning what could be the world’s largest offshore PV plant — a 100 MW facility located off the coast of the Italian northern region of Emilia-Romagna. The project, whose approval process began two years ago, is expected to become operational by the end of 2025.

A research team led by the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy has fabricated a perovskite solar module with a total active area of 42.8 cm2 and aperture area of 50 cm2. The panel was built with 20%-efficient perovskite cells connected in 14 series and was able to retain 90% of the initial efficiency after 800 h of thermal stress at 85° C.

An Anglo-German report has suggested the environmentally-friendly desire to use only clean power to produce hydrogen, outlined by nations such as Germany, could end up being more emissions-heavy than the more pragmatic embrace of blue hydrogen under consideration in the U.K.

A global ranking of large scale solar project capacities indicates prominent roles for a resurgent Spain, behind the usual top three of China, the U.S. and India, with Australia and the Netherlands also on the rise. There were disappointing returns, though, for the U.K., Italy and Canada.

German energy company Steag wants to build three PV plants totaling 244 MW across several olive groves in the southern Italian region of Apulia. The unsubsidized agrivoltaic projects are expected to sell electricity through power purchase agreements. The distance between the rows of the olive grove and the photovoltaic system has been specifically designed both to avoid shadowing and allow the passage of the automatic machinery necessary for the cultivation of the olive trees.

Canadian Solar is pivoting towards energy storage and is preparing to IPO its manufacturing and Chinese solar project activity in China, under the CSI Solar operation, by July.

Italian research agency ENEA is planning to build a €14 million ‘hydrogen valley’ in the province of Rome. pv magazine has spoken with its director of the department of energy technologies and renewable sources, Giorgio Graditi, and has found out that the project will also include the production of hydrogen from photovoltaics.

Enel Green Power is combining existing PV arrays with agriculture at nine pilot sites in Europe. pv magazine recently spoke to Giovanni Tula, the company’s head of sustainability, about the business model and its replicability.

The Italian gas contractor started to develop three green hydrogen projects in the southern Italian region of Apulia and has identified land for potential projects in Albania and Morocco.