Western Europe

Despite technically reaching grid parity, Greece installed a mere 13 MW of new solar PV in 2014, according to official statistics released last week.

The concept of the smart home is emerging as a hot topic in the debate regarding the U.K.’s energy future. At the EcoBuild last week, a special session entitled “Smart and Efficient Use of Future Energy” depicted accurately the central role solar PV plays in the transition to the smart era. It also highlighted how innovation leadership is coming from small, bottom-up firms as utilities and policy-makers struggle to adapt and embrace the new technologies.

Spain and France have interconnected a new grid line that doubles the electricity exchange between the two countries. With a power capacity of 2 GW and capable of reversing the direction of flow of the energy exchanges between Spain and France in just 50 milliseconds, the new line is expected to boost renewable energy.

The Greek government has introduced legislation to facilitate net metering for solar PV arrays. To reward the PV sector for the delay in the policy, Greece has designed a generous net-metering scheme allowing installations up to 500 KW. Is the new law able to kick-start the idle Greek PV sector?

Approval of law could propel solar sector into the fast lane, where PV is still playing catch-up to a soaring wind industry.

Spanish electricity grid operator Red Eléctrica de España (REE) announced on Wednesday the construction of a 126-kilometer long cable interconnecting the Balearic Islands of Mallorca and Ibiza. The project can potentially benefit PV, which now lags behind in the sun-washed islands of the Mediterranean Sea, but this will require time.

In a stormy hearing last week, Spanish commissioner-designate for energy and climate action Miguel Arias Cañete sought to dodge questions about his oil industry past and provided only vague answers to questions about energy and climate protection policy. His candidacy could be in danger.

The fund plans to acquire two PV plants with a combined capacity of 74 MW and expects to continue acquisitions of plants below and above 5 MW following the introduction of next year’s CfD scheme.

The increased budget will be split between the various renewable energy technologies bidding for subsidy support. The country’s Solar Trade Association says the government’s decisions “represent serious tragic mistakes in energy policy.”

ANIE Rinnovabili, the country’s solar PV sector voice, is weighing actions against the feed-in tariff (FIT) cuts recently imposed to existing photovoltaic installations. Tariff reductions were absolutely unnecessary, the energy association says.