europe

Hevel Solar and Russian hydropower company Rushydro have signed off on an agreement to develop a hybrid, hydro-PV installation at the Nizhne-Bureyskaya hydropower facility in the Amur Oblast of Russia.

PV developer EnBW has commenced work on the first of many PV projects that will form part of an 800MW solar portfolio.

Cubico Sustainable Investments has closed the financing for two solar projects in Portugal totalling 29.4MW.

The corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) market is currently struggling from a “large gulf” in understanding that standardised contracts could solve, but the industry is still a “long way off” from introducing them.

Chinese inverter manufacturer Growatt has opened its fifth hub in Europe as it continues to target overseas markets.

The continued growth of the secondary solar market on a pan-European scale will result in “exciting times” for the sector, but big utilities are unlikely to stay on the sidelines.

A summary of solar news from across Europe including a rapid-fire install in Estonia.

The UK has a large-scale post-subsidy solar pipeline of more than 3.3GW, according to exclusive data from Solar Media’s in-house market research team.

The Photovoltaik-Institut Berlin (PI Berlin) has released a new study analysing over time its solar PV panel quality control audits that have topped 250 at more than 120 panel manufacturers worldwide to highlight the current status of ‘quality’, while dispelling long-held misconceptions of the type and location of manufacturers in the quality pecking order.

Member States of the European Union, through the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER I), have voted to maintain priority dispatch for small-scale solar PV installations up to 400kW.