Sweden

The country’s solar sector offers the lowest average prices for corporate power purchase agreements on the continent, according to BloombergNEF.

A group of scientists at Sweden’s Uppsala University have developed a proton battery based on abundant organic materials. They say the battery can be charged “in a matter of seconds” while operating at low temperatures, and can be cycled more than 500 times without significant capacity loss.

The nation’s cumulative installed solar capacity reached 698 MW at the end of December. Around 19,000 new PV systems were added last year.

As part of the deal, buyer Svea Solar will expand its installation of panels bought at furniture giant Ikea from its homeland to Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Offloading the residential business will enable London-based Solarcentury to focus on its global project ambitions.

The Swedish Energy Agency this week said solar power supplies will increase from 400 GWh in 2018 to 1.7 TWh in 2022. Total energy supply in the country is expected to decline from 551 TWh to 526 TWh in the 2019-22 period, due to the shutdown of several nuclear power plants.

The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity said on Monday that unidentified hackers recently targeted its computer networks.

A European research team has developed a dye-sensitized PV cell based on a copper iodide complex. The device was conceived for use in self-powered and internet of things devices.

Solar has a small but increasingly important role to play in the Nordic energy transition. And while there is still a gap in PV cost-competitiveness across some markets, interest in solar facades, BIPV solutions and C&I applications is growing.

Under the umbrella of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 initiative, the research platform ERA has initiated a new batch of future energy projects. Looking at the list of winning projects, it is easy to tell that hydrogen, virtual power plant, and blockchain projects are really at the center of what Europe thinks will be important for its net-zero carbon plans by 2050.

A list compiled by a British price comparison website draws upon data from German company Statista which shows clean energy – including hydro – made up 12.74% of the nation’s power mix at the end of September.