Netherlands

Pieces of solar panels were found in an area of ​​several kilometers around the warehouse. The local municipality has urged farmers to prevent livestock from eating the fragments. An expert on fires in PV arrays, however, told pv magazine that these fragments are not dangerous for the animals.

The plant is being built by Dutch developer Groenleven on a former sand extraction lake in the northern Netherlands. The company’s project manager for floating PV, Willem Biesheuvel, told pv magazine about its approach to deploying floating arrays always with a west-east orientation, which he claims ensures more stability and resistance to wind and waves.

Baywa re and Dutch researchers have evaluated the first positive effects of floating PV on the flora and fauna in water. They have also ascertained that the erosion of a lake’s banks has decreased.

Grid congestion issues are increasing in the Netherlands and several Dutch farmers claim to have remained without access to the grid despite having completed their rooftop arrays.

Dutch researchers have studied how solar parks can be blended into the landscape across 11 “frontrunner” sites in Europe. They considered visual impact, land availability, and end-of-life issues.

In a recent pv magazine webinar, module degradation experts took our audience through the role of temperature and mechanical stress in causing modules to under-perform. We were treated to a look at some impressive results for modules integrated with Coolback – a solution that replaces the backsheet/rear glass and frame in a conventional panel and promises lower operating temperatures and better mechanical strength. Here, Simon Meijer and Alex Masolin, from Coolback – along with Fraunhofer ISE’s Andreas Beinert – answer some of the questions we didn’t have time for during the live broadcast.

Dutch floating structure specialist Solarduck has built a pilot 65 kW floating PV array that will be connected to a 10 kW electrolyzer to produce hydrogen bonded with a liquid organic hydrogen carrier. The system is relying on the company’s proprietary floating technology that resembles an offshore oil platform.

We Drive Solar and Hyundai are planning to set up a network of 500 bi-directional EV recharging stations in the city and region of Utrecht. Through this technology, electric cars may contribute to the storage of renewable energy in a country affected by grid constraints.

The special passivating contact is claimed to feature high transparency, good conductivity, and at the same time, to offer enough hydrogenation for passivation. The cell built with this contact achieved an open-circuit voltage of 725 mV, a short-circuit current density of 40.87 mA cm−2, and a fill factor of 80.9%. Its certified efficiency was 23.99%.

The Dutch association of national-regional electricity and gas network operators, Netbeheer Nederland, is leading a plan to deploy up to 2 million hybrid heat pumps by 2030. The plan should be supported by a subsidy scheme by the government and enable the installation of at least 100,000 heat pumps per year from 2024.