Europe

Austria’s largest power provider announced a plan to invest around €100 million in solar and €15 million in recharge stations for electric vehicles over the next five years. The company aims at investing mainly in residential and C&I projects.

The Dutch solar fair has now taken the shape of an international event, due to the increasing number of big players attracted to the Netherland’s PV market, and the high level of professionalization that has been reached by the local ecosystem of installers and distributors. Although a few uncertainties on the possible changes of the current regulatory framework are suggesting caution, solar across all of its segments is clearly set to become a mainstream source of energy nationwide.

The Swiss PV equipment manufacturer recorded a loss of around €68 million last year. Although Meyer Burger was able to slightly increase sales, the EBITDA margin was below 3%. This year, the company is aiming for an EBITDA margin of 10%, in order to return to profitability.

Investments in new large-scale solar energy projects in Spain are expected to surpass €4 billion over the next two years. Meanwhile, the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha is planning to reduce the timeframe for the authorization process for solar and renewables from 12 to nine months.

Although the Balkan country has recently approved the construction of a new coal power plant, Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj has said he intends to open the energy market to solar and wind power, an action that was recommended by the EU a year earlier.

European solar research organization, Solliance and the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (ECN) have announced the achievement of 26.3% efficiency on a transparent perovskite solar cell combined with a crystalline silicon solar cell.

Scientists led by Cambridge University have discovered that adding a simple solution of potassium to the ink solution has the effect of ‘healing’ defects in metal-halide perovskite films, and immobilizing ion movement. This, according to the researchers, could push the material to higher efficiencies, while also increasing stability.

Scheme’s goal is to reset the Finnish capital’s carbon neutrality target date to 2035 by ramping up renewable energy use, electric vehicle adoption and energy-efficiency upgrades.

If you were unable to make it to Düsseldorf for the recent Energy Storage Europe exhibition and conference, fear not: this 12-minute video tour brings you all you need to know about the latest tech, service and product developments in the European storage space.

Module manufacturer Astronergy has announced a series of upgrades contributing to an overall production efficiency increase of 40% at one of its production lines in Frankfurt (Oder), close to Germany’s border with Poland.