Netherlands

Dutch developer Groenleven is planning a 48 MW floating installation at a depleted sand extraction site near Emmen, in Drenthe province.

The company — which owns a 100 MW solar panel factory in Zaanstad, in the Dutch province of North Holland — is seeking to implement a restart under controlled administration. It cited delays in the delivery of production equipment and a working capital deficit as the main reasons for the insolvency proceedings.

The Dutch Institute for Sustainable Process Technology has launched the Gigawatt Elektrolysefabriek project, which aims to produce green hydrogen at the gigawatt scale from wind and solar parks in the Netherlands.

University of Groningen in the Netherlands is adding its name to the growing list of research institutes that have developed an “industrially scalable” technique for the production of perovskite solar cells. In a separate publication, Russian scientists have reviewed the suitability of one group of perovskite materials for use in space.

If the world of solar was a newspaper, it would be a tabloid. There is no sector where gossip spreads quite so quickly and ultimately does not contribute much. For an example, Good! New Energy’s Rolf Heynen looks back to 2013, when Europe introduced the Minimum Import Price on Chinese solar panels.

The exhibition halls of the Solar Solutions Int. trade fair near Amsterdam are full and visitors seem optimistic. And for good reason, as 2 GW of PV capacity could be built in the Netherlands this year — a solid 40% jump on last year’s installations.

A 27 MW solar project will generate energy for the company’s extensive site in Moerdijk, in the south of the country.

The cell was created by applying a newly developed perovskite cell on top of an industrial bifacial crystalline silicon version. The resulting cell is said to better harvest sunlight, as one unit is optimized for high energy photons and the other absorbs low energy particles.

The Netherlands-based Foundation for Applied Water Research has published a Guide for the licensing of floating solar parks on water and developed a tool to measure the effect of PV modules on water quality and quantity and the ecosystem.

Solarpower Europe has released its estimates for Europe’s installation figures in 2018. A reduction in system prices and a policy push boosted solar across the continent. And if the trade association’s CEO is to be believed, the newfound growth has just begun.