Western Europe

Pylontech says it plans to build a new manufacturing facility in Veneto, northern Italy. The company will operate the factory under a joint venture with its Italian partner, Energy Spa.

Italy reached 26.1 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity at the end of March, according to Italia Solare, the nation’s solar energy association.

The Portuguese company Metalogalva, which produces metal structures for the photovoltaic industry, has announced the opening of a factory in Memphis, Tennessee, with an investment of $6 million.

Acciona has completed a 1.5 MW solar plant that powers an irrigation system covering 3,400 hectares in northeastern Spain, serving 150 irrigators. The company will supply water to local farmers under a 26-year contract.

Fraunhofer ISE is leading a project that is developing methods to characterize perovskite-based tandem modules, in an effort to facilitate their industrial implementation. A specially built Wavelabs solar simulator is now being used at the institute’s CalLab PV Modules. 

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has announced plans to develop an AUD 30 billion ($19,95 billion) green hydrogen production hub on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, while a new research study shows the feasibility of gas-to-hydrogen pipeline conversion in Western Australia.

The State Research Institute for Viticulture and Pomiculture (LVWO) in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, has started generating electricity and cultivating berries in a pilot plant. Separately, a project combining agrivoltaics with apple cultivation in Austria has also shown promising initial results.

Italy has secured 939 MW of new PV projects, with Spanish group Repsol alone planning 825 MW of solar development, including its first two arrays in Puglia. Comal and Sonnedix have likewise unveiled new PV projects in Sardinia and Lazio.

Soltec says its new algorithm optimizes tracker positioning by considering both frontal and rear radiation, resulting in a production increase of up to 0.30%.