Funded by Gates‘ Breakthrough Energy Coalition and InnovFin, Bill Gates and the European Commission are setting up a new EUR 100 million fund. The aim is to fuel renewable energy growth, push ultra low-cost solar and to find new technologies and energy storage solutions.
After some very successful years, Britains solar growth is slowing down remarkbly, as statistics show. Various issues in the industry have caused 2018 to be the slowest year yet after 2009.
France has assigned 103 utility-scale solar projects in what was the fourth out of a series of six tenders. Between all of them, they are expected to reach a total of 4 GW of new solar facility. The projects assigned in this particular round had an average price of EUR 58.2/MWh and an overall capacity of 720 MW.
After a first pilot tender in 2016, Greece will hold further auctions in July. They will tender 300 MW respectively to both PV and wind energy. The aim of the scheme is to support and promote renewable energies.
As the Dutch SDE+ program was able to successfully boost projects with a size of more than 1 MW, the country‘s government now intends to adapt the program slightly in order to grant smaller projects a higher level of incentive.
STA, the Scottish Solar Trade Association, have proven to the Distribution Network Operator that solar installations under 200 kW have a much smaller impact on the grid than previously assumed. Hence the DNO could be persuaded to simplify the connection procedure for these projects.
