Western Europe

Greece has grand plans for an interconnector network that runs from the Middle East through to the heart of Europe. pv magazine examines the latest developments on the road to a Mediterranean super grid and what it might mean for the regions involved.

Linde says its White Martins unit will build a second electrolyzer to produce green hydrogen in Brazil, while Sunfire has launched a front-end engineering and design study (FEED) for a new 500 MW hydrogen project.

Netherlands-based developer Giga Storage has obtained the irrevocable permit for the construction of a 600 MW/2,400 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Belgium.

UV Energy has developed a PV system that can be used in parking lots and on other surfaces. It claims that the arrays can be deployed within time frames of three to six weeks.

Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and First Solar have agreed to work together to develop thin-film PV technologies on a gigawatt scale.

Spain’s Soltec has developed a new dual-row, single-axis tracker with a tracking range of up to 60 degrees, offering compatibility with 60-cell, 72-cell and 78-cell modules.

An Austrian team develped a model to optimize lamination parameters and to flag critical, insufficiently crosslinked and inconsistent encapsulant laminations. It could be particularly suitable for the production of double-glass solar panels.

The Dutch government has earmarked €100 million ($106.7 million) of subsidies for the deployment of battery storage alongside PV projects. The funds are part of a €416 million subsidy program announced last year to alleviate grid congestion.

AleaSoft and SolarPower Europe inform pv magazine that negative energy prices in Europe are related to the pandemic, low demand, insufficient storage solutions, and inadequate energy planning. They say this situation will likely continue into the summer.

The Swiss canton of Fribourg says it plans to cover a roadway with 14 MW of solar panels. The authorities are now conducting an in-depth feasibility study, to be followed by a financial plan for the project.