Europe PV Snippets: UK Clears 850 MW Projects & More

UK clears 850 MW solar: The newly appointed Labour Party-led government in the UK has kickstarted its reign by consenting to the construction of 3 nationally significant solar farms with a combined capacity of 850 MW. Local solar energy association Solar Energy UK believes the capacities of Sunnica and Gate Burton will both come to 500 MW, and that of Mallard Pass will be 350 MW. Their collective capacity is about 2/3rd the amount of solar energy installed as ground mounted and rooftop solar projects with a combined 1.9 GW last year, according to the association. A ‘delighted’ Solar Energy UK has welcomed the decision by the new Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband. Mallard Pass project is helmed by Recurrent Energy and Windel Energy. Low Carbon mentions the Gate Burton Energy Park’s proposed capacity as around 500 MW on its website. 

AIKO’s Bosnia win: Chinese solar PV producer AIKO has secured the contract to supply its high efficiency all back contact (ABC) Star Series modules for the ‘largest’ ground-mounted PV project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It will supply these modules for 58 MW capacity to Tibra Pacific in Q3/2024. The project is scheduled to be installed by the end of this year and grid-connected within Q1/2025. AIKO claims the project was originally planned to have 104.5 MW capacity. Under phase I, it was equipped with 40.5 MW TOPCon modules and 6 MW of AIKO’s ABC modules. Having found that the ABC modules increased power generation by 12% over the same area and reduced power generation costs by 3%, Tibra decided to replace all 58 MW TOPCon modules under phase II with AIKO’s Star Series ABC panels.  

Carrefour opts for solar: French multinational retail and wholesale corporation Carrefour Group is investing in solar energy under a partnership with GreenYellow. Under the deal, GreenYellow will install and operate solar PV equipment on around 350 Carrefour hypermarket and supermarket car parks in France. GreenYellow will finance the equipment that within 3 years will produce about 450 GWh annually. Carrefour said this will bring down its energy bills due to self-consumption of solar power while leading to improved customer path and satisfaction due to the shade structures protecting from bad weather and sun. Carrefour targets to use 100% renewable energy in its total electricity consumption by 2030.    

EnBW’s green bonds: German utility EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG has issued 2 green corporate bonds with a total issue size of €1.2 billion. These will be used to finance climate-friendly, European Union (EU) Taxonomy-aligned projects for which it updated its Green Financing Framework recently. The bonds have a term of 7 and 12 years, respectively. It is part of the company’s sustainability and decarbonization strategy. To date, it counts to have issued €6.7 billion of green bonds. By 2030, it aims for a minimum 85% of its new issues to be sustainable. The company targets to phase out coal from its portfolio by 2028 and renewables to account for over half of its generation portfolio by the end of 2025. 

GALILEO takes over PAGRA: European renewables company GALILEO Green Energy has become the 100% stakeholder of Poland-based commercial and industrial (C&I) industrial rooftop solar installer PAGRA. GALILEO acquired a 35% stake in the company in July 2022. Now it has acquired the remaining 65%. 

350 MW Spanish portfolio for Exus: Renewables asset manager Exus Renewables has bagged a deal to provide technical and commercial asset management for 350 MW solar PV capacity in Spain. Independent power producer (IPP) BNZ has hired the firm to look after the 11 solar PV projects in the portfolio. All the facilities are set to start commercial operations between May 2024 and June 2025. Exus says it will streamline the transition to full operation, mitigating any potential financial risks.   

Tongwei modules in the Netherlands: China’s Tongwei says its TNC-G12 66 modules now power the 1st n-type 210 mm large-format module project built in Europe, in the Netherlands. The Zonnepark-Dorst ground-mounted project has a total installed capacity of 13.62 MW. It is owned by Groendus and implemented by Zonnestroom Nederland. Tongwei says its TNC-G12 modules use the company’s self-developed large-area cells with a mass production efficiency of up to 26.26% and a maximum output of 720W.  

Over 1 GW new distribution deal: Solar PV distributor Menlo Electric says it has expanded its partnership with China’s JinkoSolar to distribute 1 GW of the latter’s modules over the next 12 months. These will be shipped within Europe, the Middle East, and South Africa.