Europe

German engineering and systems integrator Wattkraft agrees framework agreement with the Chinese inverter specialists for the supply of 500 MW of inverters to be shipped within Germany and beyond.

EUROBAT is urging the European Union to develop a unified strategy to promote and support the uptake of battery storage to facilitate the transition towards a decarbonized society in Europe.

It’s been another typically busy week for solar in 2017. Predictions for the storage market are ballooning, while PV prices are shrinking, policy’s shifting, and ever more players are jumping into the fold.

A new report from Clean Horizon points to several major developments in the French energy market, which point to the nation becoming Europe’s next big market for storage.

While global solar power demand increased 50%, new European installations were down 20% compared to 2015, falling to 6.9 GW of new capacity on the continent.

End of year surge in installations pushes annual total towards 1.5 GW – a slightly higher figure than that recorded in 2015. Tumbling module costs in Europe have aided this upturn, with small-scale solar installations predominant.

A report published this week by EU trade body Solar Power Europe puts emphasis on innovative business models and financing schemes as the key drivers taking solar to the next stage in its development across the continent.

Meyer Burger’s solar PV manufacturing equipment is in vogue at the minute, as the company has enjoyed a flurry of new orders in the last week, the most recent a CHF 8 million (USD 7.9 million) order from one of the company’s existing European customers.

Renewable energy support policies at the national and European level are needed to reduce the cost of capital for solar PV and onshore wind projects in countries in the South East of European, according to an extensive study undertaken by Ecofys,