europe

The European Council (EC) has agreed a new position on the internal electricity market, placing consumer empowerment, cross-border trading and higher levels of renewables at the heart of the European Union’s efforts to transition to a low carbon economy.

BP is to acquire a 43% stake in prolific UK-based solar developer Lightsource in what stands to be a significant new solar partnership.

Solarcentury and Hamburg-based renewables funder Capital Stage have announced a “major partnership” which will aid the former’s expansion into European markets and Mexico.

SPONSORED: Frustrated with the racking systems on the market, former installation company Esdec designed its own. A decade on it is expanding its geographic footprint and on the hunt for new distribution partners.

Irish solar developers will have to compete with other renewable energy technologies in large-scale auctions under government proposals unveiled yesterday, which also failed to offer concrete plans for support to rooftop solar.

BayWa r.e. has won the O&M contract for a 153MW solar portfolio in the UK.

SolarWorld AG founder Frank Asbeck has been given approval to buy the major manufacturing and R&D assets of the company.

ContourGlobal has agreed to acquire around 20MW of operational solar PV plants in Italy from ErgyCapital for €68 million (US$80.7 million).

France has awarded 507.6MW of PV to 77 developers in its second major large-scale solar auction, for projects ranging between 500kW and 17MW capacity.

The European Commission has proposed an alternative floor price setting mechanism to replace the minimum import price’s (MIP) current linkage to Bloomberg prices.