Western Europe

The Austrian government has more than quadrupled the budget for the 2022 edition of its rooftop solar rebate program.

The Genap Energy Cover uses HyET Solar Powerfoil thin-film solar modules, rated at 12.0% efficiency, for agricultural water storage and reservoirs, with an initial focus on the greenhouse and horticulture markets in the Netherlands. Genap said a 12kWp test setup had a generation density of 60W/m2, rising to 120W/m2 within a year, with an eventual target of 165W/m2.

German renewable energy developer Juwi has completed a 204MW solar plant with more than 500,000 JinkoSolar PV modules. The company said it is currently Europe’s largest bifacial solar park.

Ikea’s holding company, INGKA Holding, will invest €340 million ($371 million) to acquire nine PV systems from Enerparc. In the future, Ikea said it will work with Svea Solar to sell residential PV systems.

Germany has come up with new measures that could lead to a cumulative installed PV capacity of 215GW by 2030. Higher feed-in tariffs for rooftop PV will likely be announced soon.

SMA is offering a new line of four inverters with power ratings of 12kW, 15kW, 20kW and 25kW, for use in rooftop PV systems up to 135kW in size. It claims the inverters provide grid-compliant power control of entire systems and enable over-dimensioning of PV arrays by up to 150%.

UK-based analyst Exawatt and Germany’s Nexwafe published a white paper this week that takes a close look at the current state of PV manufacturing worldwide, and how Nexwafe’s innovative wafer production tech might fit into it. They said that if the potential of its Epiwafer can be realized, the PV industry may yet see “another revolution in wafer manufacturing.”

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin has unveiled new technology to improve thin metal oxide films for solar water splitting, and the European Energy Exchange has announced plans for a new hydrogen index. Indian Oil, Larsen & Toubro, and ReNew have agreed to set up a joint venture to develop India’s green hydrogen sector. And Iberdrola has revealed a plan to produce industrial green hydrogen, in cooperation with the European Investment Bank.

Portuguese utility EDP has won the largest project in Portugal’s latest procurement exercise. It has agreed to pay –€4(–$4.39)/MWh for a 15-year contract, but with a 30-year grid connection for the floating array and other renewables projects.

An international research team has designed a carbon-based perovskite solar cell without a hole transport layer. Two plasmonic nanoparticles – Ag@SiO2 and SiO2@Ag@SiO2 – were added to the cell photoactive layer, in addition to a copper(I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) interlayer at the perovskite-carbon interface.