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

Two questions for you: how many countries in the world source their electricity 100% from renewable sources? And which major European nation that is well-endowed with renewable energy resources, is the worst at exploiting them?