Western Europe

The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said in response to a recent Freedom of Information (FoI) request that even if all future solar projects under its solar roadmap were ground-mounted, they would occupy no more than 0.4% of the United Kingdom’s total land area.

The Danish developer completed the 148 MW solar project, located in southern Denmark, ahead of schedule. The site is connected to the same grid point as the company’s already-operational 175 MW solar asset.

A team of Sweden-based researchers has developed a snow loss model to estimate snow-induced PV power losses on an hourly basis. The proposed approach relies solely on data from remote sensing sources, such as aerial imagery, LIDAR, and satellite data.

Researchers in Norway investigated the melting behavior of silicon kerf agglomerates under different atmospheres and temperatures to improve recycling for solar-grade silicon. They found that vacuum melting enhances deoxidation and produces a homogeneous, oxide-free melt, while agglomerate size has little effect on melting behavior.

Glare from a nearby solar park forced temporary runway closures at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, prompting Dutch authorities to order the removal of about 78,000 PV modules and apply anti-reflective film to others. The solar park operator, however, decided to replace all the panels. The largest portion of the removed, near-new modules have since been acquired by BM Energy and are expected to be redeployed in projects where glare is not a concern.

Scientists have simulated a solar-powered hydrogen production system comprising 32,050 photovoltaic panels, a pumping system, a seawater reverse-osmosis desalination unit, an electrolyzer, and a hydrogen storage tank. Operation of the system in Oman could potentially yield a levelized cost of electricity of $0.05/kWh and a levelized cost of hydrogen of $9.5/kg.

CMB.Tech has secured an offtake agreement for renewable ammonia from CEEC Hydrogen Energy’s 800 MW wind-and-solar-powered project in China, while Germany’s Gascade Gastransport said it has converted about 400 km of gas pipelines to form a new hydrogen transport corridor.

The Dutch competition regulator rules feed-in costs for home solar are not unreasonable. It is calling on energy suppliers to charge feed-in costs uniformly to make it easier for consumers to compare contracts.

Provisional data from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for 2025 showed that monthly utility-scale solar generation increased from an average of 0.73 TWh in 2024 to 0.99 TWh in the first nine months of 2025.

Italian energy group Eni and solar manufacturer FuturaSun have launched SunXT, a new startup focused on developing and producing perovskite-silicon tandem solar modules, building on FuturaSun’s research expertise.