Western Europe

Plus, the Norwegian government is set to devote €2.5 million into a joint venture trying to develop liquid organic hydrogen carrier solutions for shipping by the middle of the decade.

The Greek Ministry of the Environment and Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with a clutch of private companies to turn the small Aegean island of Halki green as a demonstration of the effectiveness of its planned GR-Eco Islands Initiative.

The Cheer-Up project aims to enhance the performance of ‘upgraded metallurgical-grade (UMG) silicon for multi-crystalline solar cells and demonstrate it is a competitive alternative to polysilicon by achieving similar efficiencies at lower cost and with less environmental impact. Researchers also want to demonstrate UMG can be used to manufacture the most advanced cell structures.

Around 500 open-pit lakes left behind as a legacy of Germany’s open-cast lignite mining industry could potentially host more than 50 GW of solar generation capacity. With that in mind, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is financing a three-year study into the technology’s revenue potential.

Construction on the Halmstad facility is expected to start this year after the Stena Recycling branch of the Swedish conglomerate announced a €25 million commitment.

The current planning regulations would mean Italy not hitting its 2030 climate change targets for another 70 years and clean energy trade bodies say the Simplification Decree being debated in parliament – which was drafted to secure €191 billion of EU cash and loans – does not go far enough.

Research institutes in Germany and Chile are investigating the potential of extracting lithium and other minerals, as well as drinking water, from brines used in geothermal energy. The concept could greatly reduce the environmental impacts of mining in northern Chile. The project has set up a demonstration of the technology at a geothermal power plant in western Germany, and is working to identify optimal sites in Chile for further development.

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!