Europe

Roughly seven months after its new beginning, the German solar PV manufacturer has again filed for insolvency at the District Court of Bonn – the second time in one year. SolarWorld blames the planned phasing out of anti-dumping measures by the EU Commission against Chinese competition and the further drop in prices.

Scientists led by the University of Braunschweig have developed a new type of solar concentrator, which can concentrate light from any direction onto a small area, such as a solar panel. The researchers say that funnels can be tuned to different light wavelengths and stacked, allowing for conversion of the entire light spectrum into electricity.

The latest arrival to the Australian battery storage market will now have the backing of a major German utility. German storage provider Senec has been acquired by EnBW, one of Germany’s ‘big three’ utilities.

Onshore wind and solar PV will go head-to-head for the first time in a new 200 MW tender in Germany. Bids for solar PV ground-mounted projects and onshore wind farms can be submitted to the Federal Network Agency by April 3.

French energy giant, EDF has announced a plan to develop 30 GW of solar projects in France between 2020 and 2035.

European research group Solliance has announced new conversion efficiencies of 13.5% (cell) and 12.2% (module) for its perovskite based PV technology. The group states that the records were achieved in a factory setting, using an industrially scalable roll to roll process.

Spanish inverter supplier Ingeteam is taking part in a research program deploying drones to inspect existing PV power plants, to spot the causes of underperformance. The SCARAB project is headed by the company and has been provided with almost €650,000 (AU$980,000) in funding from the Spanish government.

“Airbus for batteries”-style alliance announced this week in Brussels aims to expedite European battery cell manufacturing and strengthen continent’s storage value chain in face of Asian and U.S. competition.

More than €30 million in anti-dumping and countervailing duties could have been circumvented by a German company importing modules from China, according to the German custom authorities.

The 590-ha-project is currently undergoing several studies and procedures. Yet it is not clear when construction of the power plant will begin nor whether Photon Energy oversees installation of the panels.