state-aid

The European Union and the United States are seeking a solution for key aspects of “discriminatory” production requirements in the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The EU said it might bring the case to the World Trade Organization if a compromise cannot be reached.

If the EU is going to drive more than half a trillion dollars worth of hydrogen investment over the coming decades, it will need to get investors onside. The European Investment Bank has surveyed financiers to find out what they want.

The European Commission has given its seal of approval to a government program which will drive an estimated 264 MW of solar and wind capacity across 47 islands while they await connection to the mainland grid.

The Baltic state has offered energy-intensive, international-facing industries up to an 85% discount on a surcharge levied on electricity consumers since May 2017 and made the scheme wider ranging this year, in a move approved by the European Commission.

Competitive bidding for onshore solar and wind will establish a clean-power strike price acceptable to successful developers under the contracts-for-difference approach. The incentive scheme is also applicable to biogas, biomass, landfill gas, hydropower, concentrated solar power, and geothermal plants.

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.

Manufacturer Sunlight plans to invest €30 million to add 1.3 GWh of annual production capacity of lead-acid products by the third quarter of next year. The company will also devote €20 million to expanding its lithium-ion battery assembly lines.

The European Commission has determined France can offer the owners of building-mounted panels with a generation capacity of up to 500 kW a 20-year feed-in tariff without breaching the bloc’s state aid rules.

Paris intends to secure 34 GW of solar, onshore wind and hydroelectric generation capacity by 2026 by offering generators premium payments – determined by competitive reverse-bidding among developers – to top-up the market electricity price.

The €400 million, three-year scheme will guarantee price stability for developers while limiting costs to the Danish treasury and applies to on and offshore wind, wave power and hydro, as well as solar.