germany

The European solar sector has defied expectations to record its second-best year ever for deployment, according to a new study from trade association SolarPower Europe (SPE).

Meyer Burger Technology has agreed a settlement with Swiss headquartered PV manufacturer, EcoSolifer over a 2015 on heterojunction (HJ) solar cell line contract that will result in a CHF 1.97 million (US$2.22 million) loss for Mayer Burger.

Solar inverter manufacturer SMA will supply German grid operator TransnetBW with feed-in data from regional power installations to alleviate grid bottlenecking issues as home-consumption and battery storage grows in popularity.

Regulators in Europe should throw their support behind re-establishing a solar manufacturing base in the continent that could reach a capacity of 20GW and support more than 100,000 jobs, Meyer Burger and SMA have said.

German solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) provider Greencells has issued a secured green bond worth €25 million, the proceeds of which will be used to target a substantial EPC pipeline.

Germany’s RWE is on track to increase its solar and wind portfolio to 10GW by the end of 2020 as the company ramps up its renewable energy expansion following project commissioning delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.

LONGi Solar has signed a deal with German-based wholesaler EWS which will see its module supply reach expand into northern European markets.

Total solar installations are to hit 115GWdc this year as the sector continues to record a robust recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, analysis by Wood Mackenzie claims.

‘Solar Module Super League’ (SMSL) member First Solar is undertaking capacity expansions at its two existing manufacturing plants in Ohio, while evaluating several new international locations to grow its global module sales business as initial Series 6 CdTe thin film module expansion plans come to an end, effectively becoming capacity constrained again from 2021, onwards.

Europe’s residential battery energy storage systems (BESS) market is expected to continue its upward trajectory in the coming years after 745MWh of additional capacity was installed in 2019, representing a 57% increase year-on-year.