Solar2Share Collective launched; Midsummer panels for aircraft; Bekaert joins SolarDuck & RWE's Nautical SUNRISE project; Luxcara & Bayerische Landesbank achieve financial close for Danish portfolio; STMicroelectronics contracts Centrica for solar power in Italy.
Solar2Share Collective: A group of companies have come together to launch a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to provide equipment for solar stations in critical institutions. The Solar2Share Collective targets to install solar panels in healthcare and education to enable them to operate independently, foster sustainable practices and empower communities. The initial members are solar distributor Menlo Electric of Poland, Chinese solar module producer JinkoSolar, Chinese inverter makers Sungrow, Deye, SolaX, Dutch online solar products trading platform sun.store, and Polish solar PV component supplier Photonica. The initiative aims to equip 20 pre-selected facilities including schools, kindergartens, hospitals and rehabilitation centers with solar systems by the end of 2024. These facilities are located across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Each installation covers a size of 20 kW to 40 kW. The initiative is now open to diverse companies from around the world who can donate equipment for solar stations in such essential institutions, globally.
Thin-film solar panels for aircraft: Sweden's Midsummer has deployed its thin-film and lightweight solar panels on the wings of a light and autonomous aircraft that weighs 4 kgs. This is part of a research project at Linköping University that has developed this aircraft. The research aims to explore environmentally-friendly aircraft with higher efficiency and at a lower cost. The aircraft can be controlled from a laptop computer. "The new wing with solar panels from Midsummer was a major step up in effect from the solution with silicon panels we previously tried," explained Linköping University Lecturer David Lundström. "This type of craft is interesting for, among other things, detecting forest fires in summer, and the practical benefit of the solar cells in such an example is as a 'range extender' that gives the aircraft a longer flight distance." Midsummer says its solar cells have been previously used for projects related to space travel and solar energy in marine environments.
Belgian partner for offshore project: Belgium's steel wire and coatings company Bekaert has joined the Nautical SUNRISE project which is touted to be the world's 'largest' offshore floating solar power plant. Bekaert will provide mooring solution analysis for the project. SolarDuck is providing its modular solution for the 5 MW offshore floating PV plant which will be installed by German giant RWE. It is located within RWE's OranjeWind (Hollandse Kust West VII) wind farm off the west coast of The Netherlands (see Europe's Largest Offshore Floating Solar Demonstration Plant).
Financial close for Danish portfolio: German independent asset manager Luxcara and German public bank Bayerische Landesbank have achieved financial close for a solar PV portfolio in Denmark. The 315.7 MW portfolio is one of Northern Europe's largest solar power plant sets, it added. It comprises 3 large scale-projects with 137.3 MW, 111.6 MW and 66.7 MW capacity, all grid connected in 2023. The duo did not disclose the volume of the financing.
Corporate solar PPA in Italy: British energy company Centrica has secured a contract to supply solar energy to global semiconductor company STMicroelectronics from a new project in Italy. Under the contract, the energy trading arm of Centrica, Centrica Energy Trading A/S will supply around 61 GWh clean energy annually for 10 years. It will come into force in January 2025 to power the semiconductor manufacturer's Italian operations. STMicroelectronics operates 2 high-volume semiconductor manufacturing sites in Agrate and Catania along with multiple R&D, design, and sales and marketing sites.
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