The UK is set to become the largest market for solar PV in Europe during 2014, confirming its status as the hottest market across the region.

This is the first time that the UK will have taken podium position for installed PV in Europe, and effectively ends the historic dominance of mainland Europe, in particular Germany.

In fact, in the 19-year period from 1995 to 2013, Germany was the leading country for solar PV in Europe every year, with the exception of 2008 when the Spanish market had its brief boom year.

Read more:

www.pv-tech.org/guest_blog/germany_to_be_displaced_as_number_1_european_pv_market_in_2014

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said solar has the largest technical feasibility in mitigating harmful emissions from electricity production “by a large magnitude”.

The final draft of the IPCC’s fifth report, Working Group III ‘Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change’ was published in full on Tuesday.

The draft report stated that renewables “hold great promise”, but there are still concerns such as intermittency, (subsidised) finance and economic competitiveness, water use and land availability.

Read more:

www.pv-tech.org/news/ipcc_solar_most_technically_feasable_by_large_magnitude_in_preventing_clima

The Australian government appears to have made a remarkable concession following the release of the 100% renewables report by the country’s energy market operator – a renewables future will be no more costly than the largely fossil fuel alternative.

As we reported earlier this month, after the release of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s 100% renewables scenario, the estimated wholesale cost of electricity from a system based largely around wind, solar, geothermal and biomass would cost around $110/MWh and $130/MWh between 2030 and 2050 – depending on the speed of that transition.

A “community summary” posted on the Department of Climate Change website, highlights the fact that the various scenarios painted by Treasury, the CSIRO, the UNSW, and now the AEMO modeling suggests that wholesale prices – whatever the scenario – will fall in a generally narrow range of around $100/MWh to $130/MWh in 2030, and $110/MWh to $150/MWh in 2050.

Read more:

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/renewables-future-no-more-costly-than-fossil-fuels-55338

The largest self-consumption rooftop solar array in  Europe has been completed, and it is of course located in Germany. It is eleven  hectares in size, consists of 33,000 solar panels, and has a generation capacity  of 8.1 MW (which could power up to about 1,846 homes).

The record-breaking solar roof is on top of the Pfenning Logistics  distribution centre named multicube rhein-neckar, which is located in  the Heddesheim municipality, a bit south of Frankfurt. The building was  recently constructed and has been owned by Union Investment as of 2012.

Dennis Seiberth, president of international large-scale projects at the  project development company Wirsol, said: “In this size we usually build solar  parks.” He added that Wirsol was ambitious in its aims to build the plant in  four weeks.

Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/17/largest-solar-rooftop-in-europe-complete-in-germany/#TgCzLsTQjqMEoyzp.99

In France, 100 biogas plants will be built in the region of Midi-Pyrénées until 2020, as announced on July 30^th by the President of the Regional Authority Martin Malvy. This ambitious target was set in an agreement signed by the regional authority with the minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Philippe Martin and the minister of Agriculture Stéphane Le Foll.

The agreement foresees the establishment of a regional committee which will facilitate the development of the supply chains and will contribute to the achievement of the regional plan EMAA -Energie Méthane Autonomie Azote which was announced by the Government last March.

Since 2009 the regional authority of Midi-Pyrénées has provided support for the construction of 17 biogas plants worth an investment of 30 million Euro, 3 more are under construction and planned to start operation by 2013.

Read more :

http://www.besustainablemagazine.com/cms2/?p=1576

Around one-third of the electricity from new PV systems in Germany is being consumed in the household or business where they are installed, according the country’s solar association, BSW-Solar.  A survey of solar installers carried out by the body reveals a progressive switch to PV self-consumption, driven by the falling feed-in tariff rates paid for solar power in Germany.

BSW-Solar said that while current feed-in tariffs for residential-scale PV pays only about €0.15 (US$0.20) per kWh, retail electricity prices are around €0.27 (USD 0.36) per kWh, making it increasingly attractive for consumers to to offset electricity usage and not feed PV-generated power into the grid.

Read more:

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/survey_reveals_shift_to_pv_self_consumption_in_germany

Renewable Energy Producers Association „REPA“ does not endorse European policy on solar modules customs and contribute to the AFAS (ALLIANCE FOR AFFORDABLE SOLAR ENERGY) alliance initiatives.

http://afase.org/en

(Reuters) – Apple Inc said it plans to build a new solar farm with NV Energy Inc for power supply to its new data center in Reno, Nevada, a major step towards its goal of having its data centers run on renewable energy.

Apple and other technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp, that build and run computer server farms have come under criticism for their high consumption of electricity and other resources.

Read more:

http://news.yahoo.com/apple-plans-nevada-solar-farm-clean-energy-push-015936470.html

Demand for solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in the United Kingdom (UK) grew significantly to reach 520MW in the first quarter of 2013, driven by a strong push from large-scale ground-mount PV projects completed during March 2013.

The UK PV industry is currently benefiting from a stable funding mechanism for both residential and non-residential segments through solar-specific feed-in tariff (FiT) and Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) incentives, with known degression criteria and timeline. Furthermore, the local PV industry associations are seeing strong support and engagement with Greg Barker, the energy and climate change minister at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). This is providing increased confidence for project developers to expand large-scale ground-mount pipelines for deployment to the end of 2013 and beyond, accessing ground-mount and building-mount ROC rates.

Read more:

http://www.pv-tech.org/guest_blog/uk_solar_pv_demand_reached_520mw_in_q1_2013