St Paul’s Cathedral in London will use ‘green gold’ produced at Bellevue Gold’s mine in Western Australia, which was powered by 83.5% renewable energy in FY2026. Bellevue Gold is an Australian gold mining company developing the Bellevue Gold Project in Western Australia. The gold was selected for the regilding of the cathedral’s call and cross atop the 111-meter-tall dome, and the Golden Gallery. The mine’s high renewable-energy use and gold traceability supported its selection, the mining company said. The Bellevue Gold Project uses a hybrid power system that combines 26.6 MW of solar, 24 MW of wind, and a 14.9 MW/30 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) to supply the mine’s electricity needs. It is built and operated by Zenith Energy.
The European Commission has granted Cross-Border Renewable Energy (CB RES) status to three additional projects in the fifth call, including DEPLOY, a Poland-Germany project combining 180 MW of solar PV and wind capacity. This ENERTRAG project will be developed in Guben, Poland, with the renewable electricity converted into heat for industrial users in Gubin, Germany. It will also support district heating in Guben. The CB RES status makes the projects eligible for EU financial support for studies and works under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Energy Programme. It is intended to improve investor certainty and strengthen cross-border cooperation. The other newly approved projects are WIND, a 650 MW cross-border onshore wind project between Ukraine and Romania, and ZEGA-LINNK, which combines geothermal energy and a 5 MW heat pump for a cross-border district heating network between Austria and Germany. The Commission also lists Medlink Renewable Generation, which plans 10 GW of solar and wind capacity in Algeria and Tunisia with dedicated battery storage, among the existing CB RES projects.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing up to €55 million to Asarel Medet AD, a Bulgarian copper producer, to modernize and decarbonize its mining operations. According to the bank, the financing will support sustaining and exploration investments at its open-pit copper mine in Panagyurishte, as well as captive renewable energy generation. The broader investment program includes four proposed solar plants with a combined capacity of about 28 MW, according to the EBRD’s project information. The bank said the investments will improve operational efficiency and reduce emissions linked to electricity consumption.
European large-scale rooftop solar developer Sunrock has signed a three-year framework agreement with real estate firm BGRE to assess the potential for about 135 MW of solar capacity. The duo plan to explore the technical and economic feasibility of deploying this capacity across more than 30 logistics and industrial properties in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Selected sites could subsequently move into project-specific development agreements. Sunrock said the partnership takes a portfolio-level approach rather than focusing on individual PV projects. The partners said the aim is to future-proof BGRE’s European logistics portfolio.
An 8 MW agrivoltaics plant has come online in northern Germany, with ownership shared mainly by the three-generation Wilkens farming family and a local citizen cooperative. The cooperative comprises 90 members from nearby villages. The project has an investment volume of €4.5 million, financed by a local cooperative bank, according to a LinkedIn post by Jochen Hauff. The plant covers 11 hectares of a 16-hectare organic grain farm growing oats, rye, lupine, and clover on low-grade, light soil. Its 2P single-axis tracker system from IDEEMATEC has 13.8-meter row spacing, leaving cultivated areas and biodiverse flowering strips beneath the panels. The plant is expected to generate 9.6 GWh of electricity annually, equivalent to the village's annual consumption. The project was developed with DoppelErnte and built by MaxSolar GmbH. A co-located battery storage system is planned as a next step. Hauff said that while the key challenge was the lengthy grid connection permitting process for a 2.5 km line, tunneling under train tracks, three roads and a forest, there was no public resistance to permitting.
German renewable energy developer and operator MaxSolar GmbH has raised €155 million in debt financing for the development and construction of solar PV and battery energy storage projects in Germany. It raised this financing from funds managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). The facility refinances MaxSolar’s existing HoldCo debt and provides additional capital to support an approximately 1.3 GW portfolio. This comprises 912 MW of solar PV and 379 MW of standalone and co-located battery storage projects. Of this, about 440 MW of the solar and 25 MW of co-located storage are already operational. The financing will also support selected project acquisitions from MaxSolar’s development platform.
