Renewables

A 160 kW / 250 kWh standalone battery system installed by Spanish manufacturer Zigor Corporación ensured uninterrupted power for the village of San Vicente del Monte during a major blackout that affected the Iberian Peninsula on 28 April 2025. The system, connected to the low-voltage (400 V) grid, supplied electricity to the entire village for more than five hours.

This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Jessimiela Usidame, Procurement Manager at UK-based Elgin. She says creating equity means making space for women to speak, lead, and shape outcomes at every level. “Still, many women in commercial and project-facing roles must prove themselves — again and again. There’s often an unspoken presumption about what we can’t do, before anyone sees what we can,” she states.

Researchers in Spain have warned that nest-box installations at PV plants are often poorly planned or used for greenwashing, with boxes placed in unsuitable locations, installed incorrectly, or lacking post-installation monitoring.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that smoke from ongoing Canadian wildfires has continued to suppress irradiance levels across Canada and the Eastern US into June, with impacts stretching as far as Europe.

French renewables producer Unite has completed two solar-aviary projects selected by France’s Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) in recent tenders for innovative PV solutions.

Scientists in Germany have analyzed the thermal runaway behavior of sodium-ion batteries and lithium-ion batteries inside a 10-L reaction vessel. They have thermally abused 30 samples, each under a different state of charge level, and have found that both types suffered from runaway when the charge is at least 50%.

MET Group has switched on Hungary’s largest battery, a 40 MW/80 MWh system, at the site of a power station near Budapest.

Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica de España (REE) says a PV project in Badajoz was responsible for Spain’s massive power outage on April 28. Media reports have now revealed that the solar plant is the 500 MW Núñez de Balboa photovoltaic facility, which is owned by Iberdrola.

A new study by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has estimated India’s total solar potential at 10,830 GW, significantly higher than the previous 2014 assessment of 748 GW by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). The study revisits conventional solar deployment areas such as barren and unculturable lands and explores additional avenues to expand the country’s solar potential.

The Netherlands has awarded 1.79 GW of solar capacity under its 2024 SDE++ renewable energy subsidy scheme, including 1,237 MW of ground-mounted projects, 448 MW of industrial rooftop systems, and 107 MW of floating installations.