Europe

German development bank KfW has signed off a €100 million loan to Morocco’s solar energy agency MASEN to build a CSP plant in the south-central area of the country.

A two-year European Commission-funded project has been launched to investigate ways of integrating more PV electricity into the European grid.

CIGS solar panel company Nanosolar completed a 10.63MW solar project in Alfarrasi, Spain, the company’s largest installation to date.

UK-based PV project developer Lark Energy has announced it has secured planning permission for a 32MWp PV project which, when complete, is said to be the UK’s largest solar farm.

A significant fall in orders and bookings within Manz's solar division were partially offset by increased business within its display division, the specialist equipment supplier has reported.

Silicon crystallisation equipment supplier PVA TePla generated revenue of €83.7 million in the first nine months of 2012, slightly higher than the same period a year ago when revenue reached €77.3 million.

The Greek Parliament passes an austerity package, which included a tax on existing solar power plants.

Domestic PV installations in Denmark have grown exponentially in 2012 reaching 223MW this month from just 17.5MW at the end of last year.

EPC contractor, SunEnergy Europe, has announced that a 5.3MW power plant has been connected to the grid in Hessia, southern Germany.

Law firm Metaxas & Associates has submitted an action for annulment on behalf of several unnamed Greek and foreign PV investors to the Greek Council of State. The action of annulment calls for a u-turn on the council’s decision to suspend the submission of new PV project applications for grid connection.