Western Europe

Ireland could potentially reach 1 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity by the end of this year, according to new figures from the Irish Solar Energy Association.

Swiss startup Insolight said that it has finished a new agrivoltaic pilot project in Lucerne, Switzerland. It said it will monitor the facility for three years to assess PV performance and its impact on agriculture.

Scientists in Germany have assessed the performance of balcony solar modules connected to an e-bike battery and found this combination provides a stable and continuous operation over three days. They tested two system architectures based on passive and active hybridization and said both system designs offer satisfying results.

Lhyfe has started producing offshore hydrogen via a pilot project in France, and Toyota and its partners have agreed to invest in hydrogen in Thailand. The Australian authorities, meanwhile, have approved a hydrogen project in Victoria.

Jörg Ebel, the president of German solar association BSW, spoke with pv magazine at Intersolar 2023 about the ongoing German solar renaissance, as the market has steadily recovered since its collapse in 2012. He sees growth across all segments, with untapped “opportunities” in the C&I market. However, he noted that Brussels needs to build trust, set a unified EU industry policy to support factory investments, and create the conditions for Germany to revitalize its upstream PV business.

A poor showing by the ruling, left-of-center Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party in May’s regional and local elections prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call a snap national election for Sunday, July 23. With the vote looming, solar industry insider Kjetil Torper considers the state of Spanish solar.

Finnish scientists have tested a new eddy current-based soldering method for ribbon tabbing in solar cells and have found it considerably reduces the number of cracks and damages caused by thermal-mechanical stress in the process. They claim the new technique may already compete with conventional soldering methods in commercial production.

With its new module, the company is targeting domestic and small industrial installation applications with a product designed specifically for small spaces.

PV Austria says that 1,009 MW of PV systems were installed in Austria last year, enabling solar to meet approximately 6.6% of total electricity demand.

A group of researchers from Utrecht University analyzed offshore floating photovoltaic (OFPV) systems to determine reasons for enhanced performance compared with land-based systems. Out of their research, the team developed two regression models to help predict yield advantages when siting projects.