October 2021

Scientists in the United States working with silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries have managed to model key mechanisms that lead to fast developing performance loss in the anodes. Understanding what causes the silicon to swell up and subsequently fall apart, the scientists say, is an important step to preventing it, and producing long lasting, high-capacity batteries.

HyPoint has teamed up with Germany’s BASF to develop high-performance fuel cell membranes for use in its hydrogen fuel cell system while Italian gas transmission system operator Snam has launched a program to support startups along the entire hydrogen value chain, and French President Emmanuel Macron said that small modular reactors and green hydrogen are two of the country’s development objectives to 2030.

China’s president has detailed plans to accelerate the planning and construction of large-scale wind and PV projects in desert areas, while Wuxi Shanghai announced new granular silicon and nano-silicon production capacity expansions.

The Australian state of Queensland aims to become a leading producer and exporter of green hydrogen. It ambitions continue to gather steam, with the state government recently announcing plans to build a large-scale PV and battery-powered renewable hydrogen electrolyzer.

The latest edition of DNV’s Energy Transition Outlook report finds that, while there are plenty of encouraging forecasts for renewable energy, decarbonization ambitions laid out in the Paris agreements are unlikely to be met. The report finds that in most cases Covid-19 recovery policy has served to lock in emissions-intensive systems, and that urgent action is needed to push decarbonization in hard to electrify sectors such as shipping and heavy industry.

Researchers conducted a global assessment of rooftop solar PV potential using high-resolution imagery, big data, and machine learning.

Tata Power Solar has landed the engineering, procurement, and construction work for 100 MW of distributed solar capacity in India’s Maharashtra. The awarded capacity includes multiple ground-mounted projects.

The U.K.’s sudden energy resource squeeze is seeing price increases on gas and electricity and is creating a solar panel boom, too.

GreenYellow, a French energy solutions provider, has secured a €4.5 million guarantee from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency to facilitate the construction, operation and maintenance of a 30 MWp solar project in Burkina Faso.

The temporary measures enacted by the Spanish government in mid-September to reduce the price of electricity affect many owners of wind and solar power plants on the Spanish mainland to varying degrees.