Europe

After months of preliminary work, the time has come: With its PV+home storage network, sonnen GmbH has received prequalification from TenneT to participate in Germany’s primary control energy market. While it is currently allowed to deliver 1 MW, the goal is to supply 100 MW.

Greenpeace operates a renewables-powered electricity retailer in Germany, in a Hamburg-based operation. It has proposed purchasing giant utility RWE’s coal power plants and replace them with 8.2 GW of wind and solar power plants. Approximately €7 billion will be invested in the new facilities, which could be built without subsidies – Greenpeace Energy claims.

The French government has devised three possible scenarios for the planned phasing out of part of its nuclear power generation assets. Even under the most optimistic scenario, the target to reduce the share of nuclear power from around 75% to 50% by 2025, which had been set by the previous government, will only be reached in 2035. The most pessimistic scenario envisages the construction of four new nuclear reactors by 2040.

A team of researchers from Germany’s Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg has developed a new approach to perovskite cell production, which they say could result in better stability and longer lifetimes. The team also made detailed observation of the perovskite’s formation and decay, which could help to inform further research into high performance solar cells.

Testing lithium-ion, redox flow, and sodium-sulfur technologies, EPC provider CMI Energy wants to establish which types of system, or which combinations, are most suitable for different applications using the 4.2 MWh facility.

At first glance, the European PV conference last week has confirmed the widespread view that the upswing of monocrystalline technology will accelerate. But a closer look reveals that multicrystalline solar cells are still in the game.

What problems are being encountered and how to avoid them by learning from past mistakes? With booming installation rates across all segments of the Australian solar market, quality issues have been pushed into the forefront, and quality assurance has become instrumental in shaping further uptake.

While global coal mining companies are enjoying the highest prices in years on the back of strong Asian demand, banks and financiers are increasingly ending their support for coal power. London-based Standard Chartered the latest to stop financing new coal-fired stations.

Four years ago a viral campaign wooed the world with a promise of fighting climate change and jump-starting the economy by replacing tarmac on the world’s roads with solar panels. The bold idea has undergone some road testing since then. The first results from preliminary studies have recently come out, and they’re a bit underwhelming.

Through the listing on the French stock market, the independent power producer hopes to raise enough capital to increase its renewable energy assets from 2 GW to 5 GW. Impala intends to subscribe to the offering and remain majority shareholder.