Solar

According to estimates from national association Swissolar, about 250 MW of new PV installations were connected to Switzerland’s grid last year.

The German energy company said its new strategy is fully reflected in its balance sheet. This was accompanied by the largest loss ever registered by the group. Eon is now planning workforce reductions, as well as further measures to reduce its net liabilities to €20 billion in the mid-term.

The Estonian government plans to replace the current FIP scheme for renewable energies with an auction mechanism within the next few months. The country’s installed PV capacity reached 10 MW at the end of 2016.

The names of four consortia that will bid for Turkey’s 1 GW solar PV plant in Konya have been revealed. The tender will take place on 20th March.

The French energy giant is offering to acquire Innogy, the renewable energy unit of German power provider RWE. Innogy acquired German developer Belectric and its huge solar power plant portfolio in January.

German car maker BMW will provide Vattenfall with 1,000 lithium-ion car batteries. Vattenfall will use the batteries, which are also used for the vehicle BMW i3, for storage projects at wind farms.

The French developer has secured a 25-year PPA for Zambia’s largest PV plant. The project, which was selected in an auction held by the World Bank in 2014, will sell power to local utility ZESCO at US$0.0602 per KWh.

Four days after laying off an estimated 400 employees, Sungevity has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Meanwhile former employees say that a potential acquisition of the company’s European business by IKEA is afoot.

With seven large-scale PV projects connected to the grid last year, Panama has reached a cumulative PV capacity of 89 MW.