Italy’s struggle to re-join the gigawatt club
Italy’s main solar event, the Key Energy fair held in Rimini, demonstrated the continuing importance of rooftop PV for Italian renewables but also promised a gradual return for large scale solar. Industry insiders are hoping for at least one gigawatt of solar next year, on top of a projected 600 MW this year.
Flixbus plans hydrogen buses on long-distance routes
Parent company FlixMobility plans to test hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in Europe.
ABB strengthens e-mobility profile and builds digital microgrid at factory
The Swiss multinational has opened a production facility for energy storage systems for the mobility market and placed a 900 kW rooftop array on one of its Italian factories.
European coal fleet will run at a loss of €6.57bn this year
Economic thinktank Carbon Tracker used financial modeling to determine the profitability of every coal power plant in the EU. On average, 79% of the facilities run at a loss, with Germany, Spain and Czechia among the states particularly exposed to the consequences – for coal investors and the public.
Investment firm buys 320 MW of renewable energy capacity in Italy
Italian fund Green Arrow Capital has acquired the extensive solar and wind power generation portfolio from London-based Quercus Investment Partners. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.
Enel kicks-off production at Italy’s heterojunction module factory
The manufacturing facility, idled a few years ago, will produce bifacial modules. The company claims panel efficiency exceeds 20.5% and the factory has an annual production capacity of around 200 MW.
Enel leaps up solar developer global ranking after project spree
The Italian fossil fuel company is not hanging around when it comes to diversifying into PV, with almost 1.5 GW of generation capacity plugged in since the start of last year. Canadian Solar has disputed Wiki-Solar’s positioning of First Solar as the world’s biggest PV developer.
Italy’s historic ’Tuscia’ region deluged by 1.35 GW of large scale solar
The central Italian province of Viterbo has 1,359 MW of solar generation capacity in the development and approvals process. The mass of projects has raised opposition from some locals and developers are in talks with government officials to discuss how concerns can be addressed.
New antenna for a better photon harvest
An Italian research team has developed a device that it says can easily be integrated into a PV cell, and can boost its efficiency by converting more light particles into a high energy state before they are absorbed by the cell. The scientists claim that their innovation could offer a green‐to‐blue photon upconversion yield as high as 15%.
US corporate clean energy procurement platform opens in Europe
LevelTen claims its online platform offers small companies the chance to band together to buy green energy and connects renewable energy producers and consumers in such an effective manner it has already driven $1 billion of green energy supply in its homeland.
