Spain

With Europe set to return to solar power levels last seen during the PV boom seven years ago, a wave of mergers and acquisitions is taking place as the oil and gas majors splash the cash to buy the expertise needed to participate in PV’s new dawn.

The French home improvement and gardening retailer has stolen a march on Ikea by offering PV panels and other renewable energy products in Spain.

Analysts at PV InfoLink said the number of markets open to new technologies such as half-cut and shingled panels is constantly rising. Australia, Japan, Spain, the UAE and Brazil were cited as the hottest markets for Chinese “special modules”. Total annual production in China for half-cut modules, which are set to increase their market share this year, should reach around 20 GW.

Catalan independence protests notwithstanding, the Spanish government’s Council of Ministers is today set to approve “three essential pillars” of its climate change policy: the preliminary draft of the Climate Change Law, the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 and the Fair Transition Strategy, to “allow Spain to have a stable, predictable and accurate framework for the decarbonization of its economy by 2050”. The measures, said president Pedro Sánchez, could generate 300,000 jobs.

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.

That was the one of the main conclusions reached among 400 attendees at the Solar plants in Spain: development, financing and energy future conference, organized by Soltec and PV association UNEF in Madrid this week.

The module was developed by Insolight, a spin-off of Switzerland’s École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. The panel is based on tiny solar cells usually used for spaceflight applications and the limited amount used in the module makes it close to mass production, its creators claim.

The €125 million solar park is under construction near Seville. The project was selected in an auction held by the Spanish government in July 2017.

The two nations have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a third power link connecting their electricity systems. The news will again initiate hope for the transfer of solar energy from Africa to Europe, but is that hope justified?

The companies have entered a 15-year agreement for the plant, probably the first PPA for a project that size in Germany. Last week, EnBW said it was considering constructing a subsidy-free solar park in Brandenburg.