Western Europe

AREP, a subsidiary of French railway operator SNCF, has deployed a prototype of a mini-reversible solar power plant on non-running rails to test it for six months. The solution is shipped in standardized ISO containers including inverters and storage batteries.

Last year, the number of newly installed residential battery energy storage systems in Germany fell slightly. In contrast, the capacity of large-scale storage systems with a power output of more than 1 MW doubled within a year.

Greece installed 400 MW of net-metered PV systems in 2024, bringing its cumulative distributed solar capacity to 850 MW. However, the country shifted from net metering to net billing in September.

Scientists in Spain have used genetic algorithms to optimize a feedforward artificial neural network for the prediction of energy generation of PV systems. Genetic algorithms use “parents” and “offspring” solutions to achieve better results in subsequent generations.”

TU Delft researchers have investigated for the first time the effect rear irradiance has on the optimal bandgap energy and thickness of the perovskite cell in a bifacial two-terminal perovskite-silicon tandem module. Their findings show that bifacial tandems have over a 25% gain in energy yield compared to bifacial single junction modules and up to 5% gain compared to monofacial tandem modules.

Provisional figures from UK government record 1.2 GW of capacity additions during calendar year, bringing total capacity to 17.6 GW in official figures. Acceleration in deployment needed to hit UK government’s 2030 clean generation target.

UL Solutions says it will expand heat pump testing at its facilities in Texas and Italy to meet rising demand in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) industry.

The Austrian manufacturer said its new Argeno inverter features an efficiency of 99.1%, a European efficiency of 98.7%, and a rated AC power output of 125 kW.

A new study in Germany shows the advantages of thermal energy storage in the decarbonization of industrial processes. The researchers noted clear cost advantages and high potential for flexibility in the power grid.

At the recent World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, Octopus Energy’s founder and CEO Greg Jackson urged market participants in the renewable energy sector to tap low-cost renewables to drive both clean energy adoption and acceptance. His speech was part of IRENA’s Innovation Day at WFES on January 14, 2025 and set the scene for a subsequent panel discussion on the topic “Digitalization to support the 3x Renewables Goal.”