Western Europe

As Siemens commissions Germany’s second largest electrolyzer at the Energy Park in Wunsiedel, Engie has taken the Final Investment Decision for a project in Western Australia, scheduled for completion in 2024. Meanwhile, two reports shed light on the future of green hydrogen: on the demand side, the MENA region could use it to become the global leader of green steel; on the supply side, BNEF welcomes the support commitments coming from Europe and the United States.

The German government continues to respond to the energy crisis by implementing measures supporting small-sized PV. This time, the tax breaks are intended to support solar arrays below 30 kW in size.

The government announced new measures in favor of collective and individual self-consumption, validated by the Higher Energy Council on September 8.

Energy Vault’s EVx storage system is comparable to pumped hydro, using grid-scale renewable energy when supply is abundant to drive motors and raise 30-ton blocks on a six-arm crane tower, rather than water, up to a height. When power needs to be discharged back to the grid, the blocks are lowered, harvesting the kinetic energy.

A Dutch research group has developed a passivation technique for heterojunction solar cells based on a hydrogenated amorphous silicon layer. Their cell achieved an in-house-certified power conversion efficiency of 24.18%, an open-circuit voltage of 726.0 mV, a short-circuit current of 39.97 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 83.3%.

Researchers at the University of Leicester have developed a new method of extracting silver and aluminum from end-of-life PV cells using iron chloride and aluminum chloride dissolved in brines. According to them, the cheap solvents retrieve up to 95% of the metals within 10 minutes, achieving a 98% purity of silver chloride.

Spain has reached 17.1 GW of large-scale PV capacity and 2.5 GW of solar under the self-consumption regime, according to new figures from grid operator REE.

The German authorities say that the country’s new 1.5 GW tender is a response to the current energy crisis. Selected PV projects will have to reach completion within nine months after securing feed-in premium tariffs.

The French authorities have allocated 89.8 MW of solar capacity in the country’s latest procurement exercise for commercial and industrial PV systems.

Italy’s cumulative PV capacity surpassed 23 GW at the end of June. Rooftop PV continues to drive the Italian solar market, but the large-scale segment is finally showing the first signs of a real recovery.