Western Europe

Over Easy Solar AS has developed a rooftop PV system with two generation peaks – one in the morning at 11 am, and one in the evening at 7 pm. It has been deployed on a school building.

Nickelsdorf, a small town in eastern Austria, has started building a 120 MW solar project. Upon completion, it will be the nation’s largest solar park.

French solar energy institute INES has developed new PV modules with thermoplastics and natural fibers sourced in Europe, such as flax and basalt. The scientists aim to reduce the environmental footprint and weight of solar panels, while improving recycling.

A Spanish court has ruled that Spain’s largest operational PV project – the 500 MW Nuñez de Balboa solar plant – occupies a piece of land that was illegally expropriated. Project owner Iberdrola must now shut down a large portion of the installation.

UK scientists have developed a process using laser and x-ray pulses to observe what happens in the initial fractions of a second after light hits a solar cell. By applying the technique to various organic PV materials, they expect to gain insights that could quickly the improve the efficiency of such materials.

The Irish government has drafted a proposal that would exempt domestic and some non-domestic solar installations from planning permission, in order to make solar installation shorter and simpler, bringing the nation in line with the EU Solar Rooftops Initiative.

Solar generation accounted for a 8.2% of Portugal’s total electricity production in May – a new record for the country.

German VIPV specialist Sono Motors has signed an agreement with French refrigerated vehicle supplier Chereau to develop refrigerated vehicles powered by an integrated solar array. The two companies will build and test a prototype vehicle, and begin to evaluate mass production. Sono estimates that the concept could save around 3,400 liters of fuel and avoid 9 tonnes of CO2 emissions per vehicle, per year.

There is enormous demand for renewables to enter the grid, and for power purchase agreements to make use of them. However, as more renewables feed into the grid at intermittent periods, the risk of “revenue cannibalization” increases. Swiss consultancy Pexapark’s latest report looks at the “cannibalization effect” and how the solar PPA market can adapt.

Scientists in Norway have managed to run a micro gas turbine plant on pure hydrogen. They claim their experiment paves the way for the use of existing infrastructure to generate heat and power with the green fuel.