Western Europe

The procurement exercise, the second solar auction under Italy’s Fer X incentive scheme and first to exclude the use of Chinese solar modules, cells and inverters for projects above 1 MW in size, concluded with a final average price of €0.06637/kWh.

Maxeon has filed a lawsuit in Germany claiming Aiko Solar, and four of its German product distributors, breached a patent related to its back contact solar technology. It is the third such lawsuit Maxeon has opened against Aiko.

Jakson Engineers Ltd will set up a high-tech solar PV module recycling plant capable of recycling around 5,00,000 PV modules, or approximately 13,500 tonnes of modules per year, recovering critical materials and enabling responsible end-of-life solar management. The recycling line will be supplied by Ecoprogetti.

Standard Chartered and British International Investment’s (BII) financing will enable Apraava to install around two million smart meters in homes and businesses. The smart meters will help make India’s grid more efficient, reliable, and sustainable by enabling better integration of renewable energy sources and reducing aggregate technical and commercial losses.

Using the mask-and-plate copper metallization technique, scientists at the German research center fabricated a 1.21 cm² perovskite–silicon tandem solar cell featuring a heterojunction bottom device. The cell achieved an efficiency of 19.35%, reportedly the highest value reached to date for this cell type using galvanic front metallization.

Solex Energy Ltd has partnered with Germany’s ISC Konstanz to upgrade its upcoming TOPCon cell line and adopt next-generation rear-contact and c-Si tandem/perovskite solar technologies.  The manufacturer also unveiled its concept rear-contact solar module, which is set to enter commercial production by FY 2027.

Blueleaf Energy has secured $75 million financing facility from British International Investment (BII) to accelerate development of nearly 2 GW of utility-scale solar, wind, and energy storage capacity in India.

Germany has concluded a new renewables tender for innovative projects, securing 485 MW of capacity at final prices ranging from €0.0479 ($0.0557)/kWh to €0.0559/kWh

GlobalData projects Spain’s renewables to reach 218.1 GW by 2035, while solar will drive growth with 152.8 GW of capacity.

Statkraft has signed an agreement to sell approximately 1.5 GWp of its renewable energy portfolio in Rajasthan, comprising the recently commissioned 445 MWp Khidrat solar plant and around 1,000 MWp of solar and wind projects at various stages of development.