Western Europe

A conference held this week in London shed light on the U.K. Government’s timeline for reviewing its Capacity Market and Contracts for Difference schemes, and what the changes could mean for renewable – and specifically solar PV – energy projects.

The local transport provider wants generation facilities – almost certainly solar – across its 6,000 acres of land and roofs in the capital city, and hopes to break ground on the first sites within a year.

The agreement will help supply Spanish distribution group Uvesco with 100% renewable energy. The first two PPAs for the huge solar plant were signed by Iberdrola in July and October, respectively.

Grupo Cobra will be responsible for the construction of the plant, which will comprise 151,500 PV modules of 330 Wp, mounted on a horizontal single axis solar tracking system and 27 inverters. The facility will occupy an area of 161.2 hectares.

The battery will be made by assembling 78 second life battery packs from Nissan’s electric Leaf vehicles. The project is expected to help resolve imbalances in the electrical system of the autonomous city and improve quality of supply.

The Italian power and gas provider and the European subsidiary of the Chinese module maker have created a join venture, which will acquire Talesun’s existing Italian PV plant portfolio of 43.2 MW and develop another 300 MW of market parity projects.

The Law on Climatic Change being prepared by the Spanish government provides greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by 20% compared to 1990 levels in 2030, and that the electric system has 70% generation from renewable energy sources. By 2050, the targets will be raised to 90% and 100%, respectively.

The Federal Ministry of Economics has published further details of possible battery cell production on a gigawatt scale. At the Networking Conference Electromobility 2018 in Berlin this week, Minister Peter Altmaier stressed the urgency of the project, for Germany and Europe to be independent of Asia and the US in storage technology.

The Italian power provider has implemented its first pilot storage projects linked to solar. The system can provide grid services such as primary and secondary frequency regulation and tertiary and voltage regulation.

The scheme would provide low interest loans to Dutch schools willing to go solar. Some 6,000 of the country’s 7,000 school buildings have yet to install an array.