Wind Power

Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice president of the European Commission, said this week that the EU authorities are investigating the deployment of several wind farms in Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria.

Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN), the grid operator in Portugal, says that renewables covered 91% of national electricity demand in March. This marks the third consecutive month in which clean energy has exceeded 80% of total power demand.

Turkey’s total installed PV capacity reached 12.4 GW at the end of February. Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar says the country aims to add 3.5 GW of PV every year through to 2035.

Polish grid operator Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE) has announced its third disconnection of renewable energy capacity this year. This time it has initiated the reduction of 1,201 MW to 1,877 MW of PV in response to oversupply.

Bulgarian businesses can apply for funding under two new tenders that aim to facilitate 1,425 MW of renewable energy generation capacity coupled with 350 MW of energy storage. Funding support is only offered for the storage component.

South African real estate trust Growthpoint Properties has signed an offtake deal with local electricity trader Etana Energy for 195 GWh of renewable energy. The contracted power will be sourced from wind, with a smaller component of hydro and large-scale solar capacity.

The Serbian Ministry of Mining and Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chinese companies Shanghai Fengling Renewables and Serbia Zijin Copper. It envisages the construction of 1.5 GW wind and 500 MW of solar projects alongside a green hydrogen production facility with 30,000 tons of annual output.

New research from Austria has compared different industrial heat-generating techniques and has found that wind or solar-powered heat pumps are the cheapest and most environment-friendly solution.

Plans to connect around 10 GW of battery energy storage projects in England and Wales are now in the fast lane. This comes on top of 10 GW of capacity unlocked at distribution level, including shovel-ready solar farms, onshore wind, and battery storage projects.

A research team in Spain has developed an hourly mathematical model that reportedly allows for the optimal management of grid-connected renewable generation facilities and pumped hydro-energy storage with reversible pump turbine. The scientists tested the model on a potential pumped hydro-solar-wind complex in northern Spain and found that the combination of the three technologies may achieve considerable savings.