The promise of hydrogen as the energy source of the future has long been deliberated by manufacturers, climate professionals, and political figures. These discussions have intensified following the European Commission’s economic recovery package, which features a focus on kick-starting a clean hydrogen economy in Europe. Nikolaos Tsiouvaras, R&D director at Systems Sunlight S.A., a Greek manufacturer of industrial and advanced technology batteries for the energy storage industry, explores storage in Europe.

A new wave of consolidation and some reshuffling is underway among market leaders in the solar EPC space, writes IHS Markit’s Josefin Berg. In 2019, the 30 largest EPC providers globally installed 28 GW of non-residential PV, representing 26% of the total market. This increase from 21% in 2018 stems mainly from a growing concentration in the Chinese PV market, as well as integrator concentration in rapidly growing markets like Spain and Vietnam.

Rajendra Khandalkar, group head of supply chain management at India-based infrastructure engineering, procurement and construction services company Sterling and Wilson, has spoken to pv magazine India about learning from the Covid-19 crisis and the importance of smart supplier management to bolster company resilience.

Clean energy is critical to solving our climate crisis. But we need to consider the full environmental and human health impacts of solar energy generation across its entire lifecycle, including mining, manufacturing, use, decommissioning and recycling. This requires us to identify critical stages in the production process, and how choices in materials and chemicals at different stages of production influence each other.

Both the current status, and the future of, solar PPAs in the Turkish market as a key tool for increasing PV capacity has become a widely discussed topic. This is particularly due to the fact that after mid-2021, the future of YEKDEM (Turkey’s local FIT regime) is uncertain. The incentives could be lower than expected, or even unavailable for some technologies. This has raised the question of alternative financing mechanisms with respect to new investments.

Clean energy electricity generation surpassed that from nuclear and fossil fuels for the sixth successive quarter in the July-to-September window, according to data analyst Enappsys, but Europe saw a fall in solar output and demand patterns at the end of the window may presage a second wave of Covid-19.

The latest edition of the Global Off-grid Solar Market Report by the World Bank and GOGLA has called for regulatory and financial support to help off-grid distributors create jobs lost to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The proportion of clean energy consumed in the EU continues to rise but the European Commission’s State of the Energy Union report is critical of failings in energy efficiency, low-carbon-R&D spending, and the removal of fossil fuel subsidies.

The advance of PV has been lauded by the International Energy Agency as it launched the latest edition of a flagship World Energy Outlook 2020 report overshadowed by the Covid-19 crisis and uncertainty over how long the economic recovery could take.

Orders fell more than 70% in the second quarter but China’s economic recovery is providing the basis for cautious optimism.

The credit, to be made available to public bodies in the bloc’s 27 member states, would be bolstered by €10 billion from the EIB and should not, said the Council of Ministers, support nuclear or fossil fuel projects.

The exercise will be open to PV projects ranging in size from 200 kW to 5 MW.

As one of the world’s top ten PV module manufacturers and an experienced EPC supplier of solar PV power stations, Talesun Solar expanded its business globally based on steady capacity growth and targeted marketing actions. Before the largest solar PV exhibition and conference of the North America, the Solar Power & Energy Storage International (SPI) 2020, PV Magazine has the opportunity to interview with Mr. William Sheng, the president of Talesun Solar, and listen to his view of the PV market, module products with different techniques, and other hot topics.

Tesla’s solar and battery businesses show signs of life in another profitable quarter for the EV manufacturer.

The Norwegian renewables company has already raised $300 million of the $700 million, one-year funding it has shouldered to acquire hydro business SN Power from state-owned Norfund.

The Spanish solar EPC specialist has announced a “landmark” power purchase agreement for the 200 MW Blue Grass solar project in Queensland, Australia.

The 4.16 MW inverter has a reported efficiency of 99.02% and a European efficiency of 98.7%. The Chinese manufacturer claims the inverter’s DC parallel connection ensures the continuous operation of devices and increases the overall utilization rate by 1%.

The municipal firefighters of Ullum have been working for about an hour-and-a-half to extinguish a fire in the inverters of the Ullum photovoltaic park, owned by Argentinian energy company Genneia.

The pilot project, consisting of a 50 MW solar plant and a utility scale electrolyzer, is planned to test how this combination may help reduce grid constraints in the country.

The government of the archipelago is seeking proposals to build solar-powered ice-making plants on four islands. A pilot, 40 kW project powering an industrial ice machine was successfully implemented in 2016.

Barbara Pompili, the French minister of ecological transition, recently announced new bonus incentives for BIPV projects during a visit to a Sunstyle factory that aims to produce 1 GW of “Made in France” solar tiles by 2025.

Scientists led by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed a new stress testing protocol for PV modules, one designed to simultaneously expose modules to multiple stresses, as they likely would be in the field. Putting modules through this test, the researchers have already been able to reveal new information regarding backsheet degradation, and they promise new insights into other degradation mechanisms both known and unknown as well.

Indian researchers have used an “adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system” to assess the performance of hydrogen production backed by a photovoltaic-thermal collector. They claim it can be applied to other hydrogen production systems.

Australian researchers have made a significant discovery in the fight against light-induced phase segregation in next-generation PV cells.

Netherlands-based technology companies Avy and Wattlab have conducted the first test flight of a drone prototype that is planned to be used in medical projects in Africa.

In an update to its International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics, the German engineering association the VDMA said that solar module sizes of up to 4.0m² may be brought to mass production in the future.

The South Korean manufacturer has launched a new 60-cell panel with a power output of up to 365 W. The 21.1%-efficient module features a 320 W microinverter with an efficiency of 97%.

The French organic PV specialist has achieved the record efficiency for cells exposed to low light (1000 lux). Armor sees potential in energy-intensive applications.

The NEA has revealed more than 1.3 GW of solar capacity was added to Chinese rooftops last month, with more than 500 MW of it in Shandong province. While poly maker Daqo was forced to revise down its latest sales forecast it predicted a quick rebound in the current quarter.

Falling solar prices are leading to a new energy strategy for the United Arab Emirates as local energy companies offer unbeatable prices that make green hydrogen increasingly affordable.

Swedish scientists have developed a redox flow battery with polymer electrodes, based on a special conductive polymer known as PEDOT. The battery features a water-based electrolyte based on a solution of redox quinone molecules, which can be extracted from forest-based materials.

Softbank has energized a 102.3 MW solar park backed by 27 MWh of lithium ion storage capacity. The project was built on 132 hectares of land near the town of Yakumo, in the northern island of Hokkaido.

The latest project is another African opportunity for the India-based EPC player after successfully commissioning Nigeria’s first solar-plus-storage hybrid power plant, which is also Africa’s largest battery energy storage system.

The Western Australian government has given environmental approval to the first stage of the Asian Renewable Energy Hub, a 15 GW hybrid solar and wind plant. The approval is a massive step forward for the project, which will eventually reach 26 GW, and an even larger step forward for green hydrogen development in Australia for domestic use and export.

An independent power producer, AEP OnSite Partners, will be the first to deploy Wärtsilä’s new storage product.