Netherlands

Eternalsun Spire launched a solar simulator to test the performance, stability, and reliability of perovskite, tandem, thin film, and conventional PV technologies.

Compared to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed by Joe Biden’s administration in the US, the EU’s approach to establishing solar manufacturing appears slow and lacking in clarity. In this blog post, I will explore the EU’s renewable energy policy, specifically its emphasis on solar manufacturing, and evaluate whether Brussels is doing enough to establish a European solar supply chain.

Dutch gas supplier Gasunie says several market participants have reserved capacity in the first salt cavern for large-scale hydrogen storage near the Dutch city of Groningen. According to current planning, the first cavern will be operational by 2028.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, presents the solar irradiance data it collected for northern Europe in the first week of July. The data show that an unseasonal storm created by a strong low pressure system moving across from England into the North Sea had a strong impact on solar power generation in the Netherlands and Denmark.

MCPV has revealed plans to build a 3 GW solar cell and module factory in the Netherlands, with an initial capacity of 300 MW and an expected increase to 3 GW by 2026. The factory will produce solar panels using an unspecified heterojunction cell technology, with an efficiency of up to 26.5%.

Dutch utility Liander said this week that the number of curtailment events for residential PV systems more than tripled in the first half of this year, and urged owners of rooftop arrays to expand electricity consumption during peak hours.

Dutch Economy Minister Micky Adriaansens said this week that she aims to make it impossible to install solar farms on agricultural land, with some unspecified exceptions. The plan has raised concerns at Holland Solar, with the trade group warning of potential damage to farmers and solar project developers.

Renewable energy accounted for around 49.6% of total electricity demand in the the Netherlands in the first half of this year, according to data from the Nationaal Klimaat Platform.

China’s Sinopec has switched on the world’s largest solar-to-hydrogen project in Xinjiang, while India has unveiled a new plan to incentivize green hydrogen and electrolyzer production.

CPX, a unit of Netherlands-based Esdec Solar, has developed a new mounting system with a long-side clamping system for large modules. The manufacturer claims that the new structure reduces the number of required assembly steps.