Europe

The world’s largest dairy co-operative will install rooftop solar arrays on 310 facilities of its members in the Netherlands under the SDE+ program.

More than 100 research centers, associations and companies have signed the letter.

German based PV systems provider IBC Solar has announced a partnership deal with solar manufacturing giant GCL System Integration Technology. The first modules supplied by GCL are expected to be delivered in September.

In an interview with at Intersolar Europe 2017, Kaila Haines, Nidec ASI Marketing Director, is tracing the evolution of Europe’s large-scale battery storage market.

South Korean-headquartered solar firm launches European market charm offensive with launch of new PV modules and battery systems designed specifically to meet demands of the continent.

The European solar body has published ten regulatory asks on solar and digitalization that it believes can help expedite the uptake of PV and smart grids across the continent.

Xavier Daval, the president of the French solar association SER-SOLER, spoke with pv magazine about the necessity of creating a large European industrial group specialized in solar module production. Leaving solar manufacturing to China and the United States, Daval said, would make Europe energy dependent for the next decades.

ACER and CEER have asked the European Commission to take a more market-oriented approach for the Clean Energy Package 2020-2030. The two organizations called on Brussels to remove priority dispatch for existing renewables and to avoid net metering.

Leading solar analysts say that SolarWorld’s bankruptcy, announced yesterday, should not have come as a surprise. Pointing to the current “viciously competitive” cell and module market, and the ongoing dispute between Hemlock and SolarWorld subsidiary Deutsche solar GmbH, analysts from IHS Markit and BNEF, say that the writing had been on the wall for the German company for some time.

The European solar industry’s peak body SolarPower Europe says that yesterday’s insolvency announcement, from German-based producer SolarWorld, is regrettable and that it is of “vital importance” that all parts of the solar value chain are present in Europe.