Western Europe

Ruchi Gupta is a research fellow at the University of Geneva’s Institute for Environmental Sciences. She focuses on how flexibility options, such as sector coupling with hydrogen production, can support renewable energy integration and decarbonize a wide range of sectors.

A bridge crossing the Pò river in San Mauro Torinese, in northern Italy, is set to host a 300m long PV system designed to rely on special mounting structures and full-black modules. The local administration said the bridge was chosen as the rooftops and surfaces available are all located in landscape protection areas adjacent to the town’s most important historic building.

Swedish venture capital fund EQT has launched an offer for the Spanish solar developer at €26.50 per share.

The French government has selected 329 projects in its latest procurement exercise. Average prices were €77.62/ MWh for large power plants (500 kWp to 8 MWp) and €87.23/MWh for projects below 500 kWp.

Macquarie Asset Management announced a €90 million debt investment on Monday in a portfolio of concentrated solar power plants in southern Spain.

The Scottish government wants to deploy renewable-powered heat pumps on at least 1 million homes and 50,000 non-domestic buildings by the end of this decade. For this purpose, it has created an advisory group and is now seeking to gather all potential stakeholders.

Called DVP Solar, the newly created company has projects in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Colombia and Peru, and manages 5 GW of photovoltaic plants in operation. It also has another 2 GW of projects in the initial development phase, and plans another 3 GW for the coming years.

Private equity funds in Ireland and the U.S. have moved for the English company, which developed and sold the first subsidy-free solar farm in England, the 6 MW Clayhill project in Flitwick.

According to a new study from LUT University, domestic water heating costs may be reduced by combining rooftop PV with geothermal heat pumps. Scientists developed a control method to minimize these costs by taking advantage of cheap spot market electricity and maximized PV power generation, as well as considering heat demand, PV generation forecasts, and heat pump efficiency.

The system is based on a power-to-gas hydrogen technology and is intended to enable one and two-family homes to have an independent power supply throughout the year.