Portugal

The Portuguese and Dutch governments want to connect the hydrogen project of Sines to the Port of Rotterdam and to develop a strategic export-import value chain to ensure the production and transport of green hydrogen to the Netherlands and its hinterland.

Scientists have developed a new micro CIGS cell by using an area-selective electro-deposition process as a material-saving technique. It has a conversion efficiency rate of 5.2% and a high open-circuit voltage.

The EU Council has rejected a Covid-inspired European Commission proposal for a €40 billion warchest to help coal-dependent regions shift to renewables, with the heads of member states instead allocating €17.5 billion. Despite the final figure being €10 billion higher than that suggested by the commission before coronavirus battered Europe, questions have been asked about how useful the program will be.

Portugal’s recent PV auction marks a new era of battery storage for the country, says UK consultancy Everoze. It notes that the auction was so competitive that the winners had to cut their expected remuneration in the solar+storage category to negative values. It claims that the real winner is the government, as it is maximizing the value of scarce grid capacity, and argues that the auction could become a benchmark for nations with limited grid space.

The Portuguese government has revealed some of the preliminary results of the national solar auction which closed on Tuesday. Antonio Delgado Rigal, chief executive of energy forecasting service Aleasoft, said that the 15-year contracts awarded in the auction were the key to understanding the reason of such a low price. This, combined with the rights for land and grid connection guaranteed by the auction, makes attractive bidding at low prices.

The South Korean solar panel maker secured around 300 MW of the 700 MW awarded in the procurement round. The other winners are reportedly Spanish power company Iberdrola, Italian peer Enel and French-owned developer Tag Energy.

According to financial newspaper Expresso, the lowest bid in the exercise was €0.0112/kWh, slightly lower than the $0.0135/kWh submitted by French energy group EDF and China’s JinkoPower in a 2 GW tender held in Abu Dhabi, a price which was confirmed last month.

Negative second-quarter updates from China and uber-low new-solar figures from India, however, show the world is far from out of the woods yet.

pv magazine editor Pilar Sánchez Molina recalls news from the PV sector of ten years ago as part of a new series. The insights offered will not only bring back memories for the pioneers of that exciting, challenging period but may also offer an idea of where we could be in 2030.

Minister of the environment and climate action, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, announced the development and revealed nine of the ten lots tendered include energy storage.