European Commission

With Paris having retroactively reduced solar feed-in tariff rates guaranteed for 20 years in 2006 and 2010, developer Solar Electric Holding has been unsuccessful in a legal bid to force the commission to decide on the compatibility of the incentive program with EU state aid rules.

The European Commission has published its second annual assessment of the competitiveness of the EU’s renewable energy technology industries, and it had a warning for policymakers about the trade balance trend being experienced by heat pump makers.

The Euro trade body has promised to monitor the developing solar jobs market annually from now on, and pointed to Poland’s position at the top of the tree of EU member states for PV jobs last year as evidence the technology can still benefit from legislative backing.

In a chat with pv magazine at the Key Energy event in Rimini, Roberta Valenziani, of Italian trade body Elettricità Futura, explained the factors preventing Italy’s PV market from having a renaissance. She said the country has Europe’s longest delays and highest costs for obtaining permits for large scale solar.

The situation in the energy markets is tense. Following national pushes for action, the European Commission has now announced its set of recommendations to combat rocketing energy prices.

Re-Source 2021 in Amsterdam has kicked off and the pivotal timing of the event has not been lost on any of the attendees or speakers. It is the time to kickstart the energy transition, and following the European Commission’s endorsement of corporate renewable PPAs as a solution to surging energy prices, this is the room where it could happen.

A consultation process examining whether legislation is required to ensure the eco credentials of panels and inverters is focusing on eco-design and energy labeling but has also made mention of the need for less carbon intensive manufacturing.

Electricity transmission system operators from 35 European countries have opened the call for new storage and long-distance network projects that wish to be included in their next, Europe-wide ten-year grid development plan.

The latest, seven-year investment attracted offers worth more than €100 billion from investors and means the European Union has already generated €54 billion of the €80 billion of bond proceeds it is aiming for this year, as part of its five-year, €800 billion NextGenerationEU support package.

An independent third-party has approved the European Commission’s safeguards to ensure the projects in member states financed by €250 billion of green bonds over the next five years, will have genuine emission reduction credentials.