Opinion & Analysis

Europe awakened to its energy dependency on Russian gas as the Russia-Ukraine conflict unfolded and the war has pushed the European Union to accelerate its energy transition. Italy could play an important role.

Polish lawmakers are preparing plans to legislate the sharing of grid connections and regulators are easing the establishment of off-grid, direct-to-consumer power lines but obtaining a permit for a solar site could be about to get more tricky.

In the first week of October, average prices in most European electricity markets were below €85/MWh and lower than the previous week – but in some hours and markets, prices exceeded €200/MWh.

After years of debate, the Indian government made domestic manufacturing a central feature of renewables policy in 2021. The pivot came as the government sought economic growth and self-sufficiency following a border conflict with China. Vinay Rustagi, managing director of Bridge to India, says that trade barriers, subsidies, lower taxes, and demand growth have created the perfect recipe for expansion.

Rystad Energy has abruptly changed statements about photovoltaic module stocks in the EU. German PV analyst Karl-Heinz Remmers questions the numbers from the Norwegian consultancy and provides different figures.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that Germany and Central Europe saw their highest September irradiances in at least 17 years, due to an ‘Omega block’ weather pattern, which kept high pressure stuck over Central Europe, leading to consistently clear skies there, but pushed cloud and storms southward.

As solar manufacturing moves toward technological convergence, and rampant production capacity expansion continues, standing out from the crowd is just one of the strategies small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will have to use to survive, according to InfoLink’s Amy Fang.

In the last week of September, European electricity market prices rose from the previous week. For a majority of prices the weekly average was above €100/MWh and, in several markets, some hourly prices were above €200/MWh. The rise in gas prices, the decrease in wind energy production and higher demand favored this behavior. Brent futures continued to rise, reaching their highest level since November 2022 on September 27.

With utility scale solar installations accelerating, Philip Wolfe, founder of PV data consultancy Wiki-Solar, drills into the data to highlight some interesting variations in relative progress around the world.