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The Hydrogen Stream: China Southern Power connects hydrogen plants to grid

China Southern Power Grid, a state-owned utility. has revealed plans to use alloy materials to store hydrogen.
Installations

Trina Solar aims for 26% TOPCon solar cell efficiency by 2027

Zhang Yingbin, Trina Solar's head of global product strategy, speaks to pv magazine about the path to a supply chain dominated by n-type TOPCon products. He says Trina Solar will reach 30 GW of TOPCon solar module capacity by the end of 2023.
Markets & Policy

GCL starts building 12 GW solar module factory

GCL Integration expects to start operating a new 12 GW solar factory in October, bringing its total solar panel manufacturing capacity to 30 GW.
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Cenários para expansão da geração centralizada

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The power behind Pakistan’s “under the radar” gigawatt-scale market

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Transparent advantage – Why transparent backsheet bifacial modules can beat out the cumbersome competition

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New tracker design: Multiple motors to tackle multiple challenges

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Installations

French startup unveils aluminum solar facade

C2F has developed a building-integrated PV (BIPV) facade made of aluminum that purportedly limits the impact of hot and cold weather, while also improving solar module performance.
Markets & Policy

Indosol, Reliance win incentives for poly-to-module manufacturing

Eleven companies in India have emerged as the winners of the second round of the production-linked incentive scheme for high-efficiency solar modules. In particular, Indosol, Reliance, and First Solar have secured incentives for fully integrated producti...
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Manufacturing

Germany launches feasibility study on PV manufacturing

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action says it will fund a study on the feasibility of quickly restoring a full PV supply chain in Europe. Three German companies are leading the study and are calling for participation from o...
Installations

South Korea cuts capacity allocations from 4 GW to 2 GW in solar tenders

South Korea has cut its 2030 renewable energy target from 30.2% to just 21.6%, as it seeks to reduce support for solar and other clean energy sources, while preparing the ground for more nuclear power and liquefied natural gas. A lobby group is now chall...
Energy Storage

Germany deployed 1.2 GW/1.9 GWh of residential batteries in 2022

Germany's cumulative residential battery installations hit 5.5 GW at the end of 2022, with the large-scale storage business growing by more than 900%.

Press Releases

Hopewind strengthens its localization strategy in Brazil

Hopewind recently strengthened its localization strategy in the Brazilian PV market with a new office unveiled, continuing team expansion, and local warehousing introduced.

JA Solar Reports Sustained High Growth in Brazil

JA Solar has announced strong growth in Brazil, a key and emerging PV market. In 2021 and 2022, JA Solar’s shipments to Brazil increased by 225% and 181% year-on-year, respectively.

LONGi enters into renewable energy cooperation as framework supplier in Singapore and Indonesia

A Memorandum of Understanding on renewable energy cooperation has been signed by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, and Teo Chee Hean, Singapore’s Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security, at the countries’ recent leadership retreat.

EDF Renewables completes energisation of three new solar farms in Ireland

Curraghmartin, Blusheens and Coolroe Solar Farms are among the first to be energised in the country

Opinion & Analysis

Featured

Fortune favors the brave

The renewables industry fears that the new energy bill that the French government is preparing could make clean power generation even tougher. However, solar analyst Xavier Daval says that betting everything on the nation’s nuclear power fleet is a risky strategy.

Assessing the area intensity of PV

Solar is wrongly perceived by some people to be an area-intensive energy generation technology requiring much more space than conventional fossil-fuel power plants.

Get what you pay for

Clean Energy Associates (CEA) has calculated the price premium that solar developers will swallow in return for the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) savings offered by the latest generation of high-efficiency PV panels.

Saudi Arabia’s solar market

Saudi Arabia aims to add 10 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2027, with solar to account for the lion’s share. The Middle East Solar Industry Association (MESIA) describes the main market drivers that could make this target achievable.

Hungarian solar is on the rise but much needs to be resolved

PV deployment is gathering pace in the EU member state but grid capacity shortfalls and unpredictable shifts in government policy need to be addressed if the nation is to harness its full solar – and European energy security – potential.

When will the world be fossil free?

Despite the ever-growing number of nations committing to attaining a net-zero economy, there appears little prospect yet of a future free of fossil fuels, as Roger Lewis, an environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) expert at Downing LLP explains.

Covid-19

African PAYG solar companies have hogged 72% of sector’s investment

The first post-pandemic update on the state of the world's off-grid solar industry has painted a picture of domination by European companies, but highlighted the potential for new startups in West Africa and an increasing use of PV as a backup to unreliable grid supplies.

Off-grid solar continues to expand

The off-grid solar sector has shown resilience in the face of pandemic-related challenges, with 70 million people gaining access to electricity from early 2020 to the end of 2021. However, the ability to pay for solar energy kits has taken a hit.

AfDB announces cheap loans to back off-grid solar in Africa

The African Development Bank has announced that European and US donors will provide $20 million of concessional loans to support pay-as-you-go solar companies in sub-Saharan Africa.

SolarEdge reports record-breaking revenue

With comparisons with a Covid-hit 2020 inevitably offering a string of positive numbers, there was also little to concern the board of the inverter and battery manufacturer from the returns generated in the last quarter.

Module and shipping cost inflation could cost the world 50 GW of solar next year

The input costs of the two biggest contributors to solar plant development expense have gone through the roof since the world began to come out of Covid-19 lockdowns, to leave project developers with some difficult choices.

Solar job numbers kept on rising in 2020

The latest edition of a clean power jobs survey produced by IRENA and the International Labour Organization has stressed the important role which will need to be played by the public sector if the energy transition’s employment benefits are to be shared equally.

Markets & Policy

Featured

Asia takes the lead on floating PV

Floating PV is consolidating as a growth segment for PV demand, mainly driven by supportive policies and incentives extended by governments across the world. A major reason for this push is the limited land availability in many markets. Despite higher equipment prices compared to ground-mounted installations, developers see the opportunity to save on land and O&M costs. The output can also be as much as 30% higher than a ground-mount PV plant, depending on the site and technology used.

Australia hits new rooftop solar record

Residential rooftop solar supplied a record 14% of Australia’s electricity this summer – contributing more than brown coal and more than large-scale wind farms and solar projects.

More than 500 MWh of standalone storage capacity starts in Texas

Wärtsilä Energy and Eolian LP have partnered on a new 200 MW grid-scale battery system. They claim that it is the largest merchant energy storage facility in the world.

Sirea releases storage systems for PV applications

France’s Sirea has developed a new range of smart plug-in systems for PV storage. The batteries can deliver from 20 kW (AC) to 500 kW, depending on the model, with storage capacities ranging from 100 kWh to 1 MWh.

Shifting sands of the Polish PV market

Poland emerged as Europe’s third-biggest solar market in 2022, driven by the rapid uptake of PV micro-installations below 50 kW in size, but this year is already starting to look different. Marcin Ślęzak, chief commercial officer of Warsaw-based Menlo Electric, recently spoke to pv magazine about changes on the demand side and tech preferences in this thriving market.

Paper-thin carbon fiber for battery with 428 Wh/kg energy density

South Korean scientists have developed a new way to integrate a lithium-metal anode into a battery and reach higher energy capacity levels than current lithium-ion tech. They worked with a carbon fiber paper infused with lithium and demonstrated an energy density of 428 Wh/kg, along with encouraging performance in stability and potential ease of manufacturing.

Installations

Featured

Australia builds big

While the first half of 2022 was one of the busiest periods on record for new wind projects in Australia, with more than 2 GW breaking ground, solar got off to a much slower start with construction on 635 MW of new PV projects getting underway. Rystad Energy’s David Dixon attributes this slowdown to high cost and supply chain challenges and a lack of available power purchase agreements.

High-latitude tests show vertical rooftop PV yields 30% more energy in winter

Norway’s Over Easy says its pilot vertical PV system in Oslo achieved remarkable performance throughout a snowy winter. In 2022, the vertical array generated 1,070 kWh per kilowatt installed, which the company says compares to around 800 kWh per kilowatt installed for a conventional rooftop array.

Systovi unveils ultra-lightweight solar panels

French module maker Systovi says its new solar panels weigh just 3 kg/m2. They are designed for flat tertiary rooftops that cannot support the weight of framed solar panels. It will begin selling the new modules in 2024.

Vaillant unveils propane heat pump for residential applications

Germany’s Vaillant has developed an air-source heat pump that uses propane (R290) as the refrigerant. It can produce between 3.4 kW and 8 kW of heat, and domestic hot water to a temperature of up to 75 C. It says the heat pump maximizes savings when paired with rooftop solar.

South Africa launches tender for floating, ground-mounted PV

The South African government is looking for independent power producers to build and operate floating or ground-mounted PV projects at selected government waterworks infrastructure or damns. The projects should be operational for 20 years.

Temperature estimates for floating PV modules

Scientists from the United States and Brazil have developed four different ways to estimate the temperature of floating PV modules. They validated the models with temperature measurements from a floating solar plant in Brazil.

Technology

Featured

Copper is the new silver lining

As the PV industry scales to annual terawatt-level production to rapidly curtail the world’s emissions, it will become more challenging to continue the cost reduction trajectory. Increasing module production from current levels of 200 GW to 300 GW to several terawatts each year will consume significantly more material resources than the industry currently uses. This will require consideration of the additional materials to be sourced, writes Alison Lennon, chief scientist at Sundrive Solar and professor at the UNSW’s School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering.

Indian researchers unveil new way to make metal-oxide layers for solar cells

Researchers at IIT Mandi have developed high-quality, uniform thin films of nickel oxide on the silicon substrate using an aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition technique, with nickel nitrate as the precursor material.

Silicon anode lithium-ion battery cell with 500 Wh/kg density

Amprius has obtained third-party performance verification for a battery cell that offers high power density in a lightweight package.

Weekend Read: Shingle all the way

While shingled cells have been around for a while, Tongwei’s adoption of the technology is notable as it is a manufacturer with considerable scale. If shingling can overcome some hurdles, it could prove a welcome solution as unshaded sites for PV become elusive in mature solar markets.

German manufacturer achieves 80% overall efficiency with new PVT solar module

Sunmaxx says Fraunhofer ISE has confirmed the 80% efficiency of its new photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) module. It consists of 108 PERC half-cells in M10 format, with 400 W of electrical output and 1,200 W of thermal output.

New propane heat pump for district heating

Swedish manufacturer Qvantum has developed a 6 kW heat pump for apartments connected to district heating systems. It uses propane (R290) as the refrigerant.

Manufacturing

Featured

Catalyst for an EU comeback

Plans for Europe’s largest-ever PV cell and module factory are taking shape, with equipment orders placed and a projected start date in mid-2024. Enel Green Power has received €118 million ($116.36 million) in funding from the EU Innovation Fund to support the project, out of a total €600 million investment. The EU is hoping it will catalyze further investment in similar projects, and start a high-tech comeback for European solar manufacturing.

Gensol Engineering acquires Scorpius Trackers

Gensol Engineering has acquired Indian solar tracking specialist Scorpius Trackers for $16.42 million.

Qcells announces new US solar encapsulant factory

Hanwha Advanced Materials Georgia has agreed to supply EVA encapsulant film to Qcells, in addition to supporting Qcells’ plans to develop a fully integrated solar supply chain in the United States.

Meyer Burger aiming for EU funding to hit gigawatt scale

Swiss PV manufacturer Meyer Burger hit its 321 MW production volume target last year, and its expansion into the gigawatt scale is already underway, as it recently completed two additional purchase agreements with major customers. It has also applied for hundreds of millions of funding support from the EU Innovation Fund, with a final decision to be made in the summer.

SDN unveils 595 W solar module with 21.28% efficiency

South Korea’s SDN has developed new bifacial solar modules based on M10 wafers. It claims the new panels are the largest to be produced in South Korea.

US residential solar quotes hit average of $2.85 per watt

EnergySage says Qcells is now as the most quoted solar panel maker in the United States.

Energy Storage

Featured

Cobalt clings on

Cobalt is key for boosting energy density and battery life, but it comes with caveats: expensive, scarce, and linked to unethical mining practices, wild price fluctuations, and a tenuous supply chain. In recent years, battery manufacturers and automakers have intensified efforts to reduce or eliminate cobalt in lithium-ion cathodes. But sometimes, old habits die hard, as pv magazine’s Marija Maisch explains.

The Hydrogen Stream: Zimbabwe to develop first utility-scale plant

HDF and ZETDC have signed Zimbabwe’s first utility-scale green hydrogen power plant, with 178 GWh of expected annual electricity production. Rystad Energy, meanwhile, says Africa’s total electrolyzer pipeline has hit 114 GW.

Novel oxygen-ion battery may offer longer lifespan, claims TU Wien

Austrian scientists have created a lab-scale, solid-state, oxygen ion battery based on mixed ionic electronic conducting (MIEC), which is a special class of non-flammable electroceramic materials. The battery has around 30% of the energy density of lithium-ion batteries but can purportedly achieve a longer lifespan.

New Zealand moves forward with 8.5 TWh pumped hydro project

The New Zealand government will investigate the viability of establishing a pumped hydroelectric facility on the South Island. The project could provide up to 8.5 TWh of annual generation and storage capacity to support the nation’s transition to 100% renewable electricity generation.

Solar curtailment vs. storage

Swiss researchers have looked at whether storage could be cheaper than curtailment in medium-voltage distribution networks with significant amounts of PV capacity. They considered storage costs, operational costs, grid constraints, electricity costs, PV generation models, and loads.

New tool to estimate efficiency, savings of ground-source heat pumps

Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a free, web-based application that calculates the savings and energy efficiency of residential ground-source heat pumps compared to gas heating.

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