Western Europe

Romande Energie and Swiss research institute Agroscope are testing startup Insolight’s transparent PV panels in an agrivoltaic project. The modules are replacing the plastic covers used to grow strawberries and raspberries.

The photovoltaic systems installed in Germany produced almost eight terawatt-hours of solar power in June alone. The previous record had been set in June 2019. Solar covered around 20.6 percent of the country’s electricity demand last month.

A 10 kW PV system has been feeding electricity into the Swiss power network since 1982. A research team has investigated the performance of the array’s first 35 years of life and has found that solar modules can target – at least in temperate climates – service lifetimes of 35 years, and that the bill of materials matters, a lot!

Developed by Solum Photovoltaic Innovation, the recharging station is being powered by a 7.6 square meter, walkable photovoltaic pavement coupled to a 2-4 kWh storage system. This configuration is enough to repower 12 scooters per day.

Although self-consumption of solar power is the optimal economic approach, the expense of household batteries at present outweighs the increased ability they offer to use electricity generated on the roof. Whether aggregated ‘virtual batteries’ offer better returns is an open question, due to lack of electricity company transparency.

India’s energy transition will not succeed without rooftop PV and roll-out is hindered not only by a lack of household finance, but by the fact many of the nation’s flat roofs are enjoyed by residents. Germany’s international development agency has proposed a solution.

Green hydrogen demand and electrification could drive a solar boom in the nation, according to the chief executive of a developer sitting on 4 GWp of photovoltaic projects.

The use of ultrasonic sound waves has been applied to battery recovery. Researchers from the ReLiB project at the U.K.’s Faraday Institution say the process has already proven to be 100 times faster than conventional approaches. It is also much more sustainable and less energy intensive.

According to new statistics, the rooftop PV segment saw a small contraction in May.

The NewMotion electric vehicle (EV) charging business owned by Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell has become the first such entity to obtain a licence to provide grid balancing services in the Netherlands. Dutch grid company Tennet has licensed NewMotion to provide megawatt-scale balancing services to maintain grid frequency at 50 Hz by varying the rate at […]