Western Europe

A grassroots project in Cornwall, England, is examining ways to implement a special, so-called “sunshine tariff.” The project, although small in scale, could provide the template for the solar business models of the new era of zero subsidies.

With Greece forming a new government, will the country at last engage with the serious reforms it needs to keep it afloat? And will the energy sector embrace groundbreaking technological change?

After weeks of tremendous uncertainty, a Euro Summit on Sunday led to an agreement that allows Greece and its Eurozone creditors to start negotiations for a new loan. What does the deal mean for Greece’s energy system, and how will renewable energies be affected?

Greece’s electricity market operator LAGIE published this week the country’s latest renewable energy statistics concerning the first four months of 2015. According to LAGIE’s report, Greece installed 7 MW of new photovoltaics from January to April. Specifically, all new installations were added in January and February, while in March and April there was no installation activity at all.

Despite technically reaching grid parity, Greece installed a mere 13 MW of new solar PV in 2014, according to official statistics released last week.

The concept of the smart home is emerging as a hot topic in the debate regarding the U.K.’s energy future. At the EcoBuild last week, a special session entitled “Smart and Efficient Use of Future Energy” depicted accurately the central role solar PV plays in the transition to the smart era. It also highlighted how innovation leadership is coming from small, bottom-up firms as utilities and policy-makers struggle to adapt and embrace the new technologies.

Spain and France have interconnected a new grid line that doubles the electricity exchange between the two countries. With a power capacity of 2 GW and capable of reversing the direction of flow of the energy exchanges between Spain and France in just 50 milliseconds, the new line is expected to boost renewable energy.

The Greek government has introduced legislation to facilitate net metering for solar PV arrays. To reward the PV sector for the delay in the policy, Greece has designed a generous net-metering scheme allowing installations up to 500 KW. Is the new law able to kick-start the idle Greek PV sector?

Approval of law could propel solar sector into the fast lane, where PV is still playing catch-up to a soaring wind industry.

Spanish electricity grid operator Red Eléctrica de España (REE) announced on Wednesday the construction of a 126-kilometer long cable interconnecting the Balearic Islands of Mallorca and Ibiza. The project can potentially benefit PV, which now lags behind in the sun-washed islands of the Mediterranean Sea, but this will require time.