germany

Germany’s renewable energy sector has said new government plans to more than triple the PV capacity included in next year’s auctions do not go far enough in supporting long-term solar deployment.

Hamburg-based solar operator Blue Elephant Energy has joined forces with renewables developer Umweltgerechte Kraftanlagen (UKA) to develop a 500MWp solar portfolio in Germany.

Meyer Burger is on track to start shipments of its first heterojunction (HJ) solar modules made in Germany to distributors in July.

South Korea-based solar module manufacturer Q CELLS has filed patent infringement complaints in both Germany and France against Astronergy.

Despite additional solar and wind contributing to a record reduction in global coal generation last year, new renewable energy projects are still not being built quickly enough to keep pace with rising electricity demand.

Berlin-based greentech startup Zolar has raised an additional €10 million (US$11.9 million) in an investment round led by Energy Impact Partners, bringing its series B funding to €35 million.

Sungrow has provided its central inverters to a 187MW solar project in Germany that has been developed by utility EnBW without state funding.

BayWa r.e. has bolstered its digital services offer through the acquisition of software platforms and data science teams of German firm Kaiserwetter.

Fraunhofer ISE spin-off NexWafe has raised €10 million in a new Series B round of funding as the company moves to another pilot production phase.

The rapid scale-up of solar capacity in the European Union drove the growth of renewable electricity generation, which overtook that of fossil fuels for the first time last year.