European Commission

The funds will come from the Connecting Europe Facility. Around €504 million will be used for electricity infrastructure and smart grids and another €286 million will be devoted to gas. The remaining €9 million will be allocated to studies on the development of carbon dioxide transport infrastructure.

The European Commission says renewables are playing a central role in lowering spot prices and stopping rises in network charges and fees. In the EU energy market, however, coal and gas still dominate, ensuring power prices are unpredictable.

The UK cities of Bristol and Plymouth and the county of Devon will get £1.9 million to develop energy efficiency, sustainability, and clean energy projects. Bristol in 2014 received a £50 million grant to accelerate its plans to be carbon neutral by 2050. Devon has ambitious plans of becoming 80% carbon neutral by the same date.

The European Commission has adopted a recommendation to promote the wider use of the euro in international energy agreements and transactions. The aim is to strengthen the role of the single currency on the international financial system.

The manufacturer of C&I storage systems has been awarded funding from the EU’s SME funding scheme to enable mass production of its systems. The company’s production site could see an additional 60 employees added over the next 24 months.

With Theresa May’s government in full scale revolt this week over Brexit, the ECJ’s ruling that the European Commission wrongly failed to find fault with the UK capacity market mechanism four years ago, is likely to have Brexiteers on both sides of parliament frothing at the mouth with indignation.

If plans are realized, the private-public investment vehicle will start investing in companies with green-tech innovations. The fund would be used to pursue technologies which could help the decarbonization of the economy but which have not received enough attention.

Lead, sulphuric-acid, nickel, cobalt and rare earth metals are highly toxic and have adverse impacts on the environment and the societies in which they are mined. As the EU is looking to become a world leader in battery production, a report considers new battery technologies – such as sodium-ion – which would have less negative impacts.

The EU PVSEC conference and exhibition in Brussels began this morning with presentations from key figures in PV development, who celebrated the technology’s achievements so far and predicted even bigger things in the coming years. pv magazine‘s Mark Hutchins was on hand to hear all about it.