Norwegian renewables specialist Scatec has revealed plans to collaborate with Fertiglobe and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt on the development of a green hydrogen plant in Egypt with an electrolyzer ranging from 50 MW to 100 MW.

Octopus Energy and RES have announced a new partnership under which they plan to invest GBP 3 billion in the construction of green hydrogen plants throughout the United Kingdom by 2030.

CCE Solar Invest GmbH has secured financing to build 600 MW of PV capacity in Italy.

PV developer 7C Solarparken has revealed plans to acquire the renewables unit of EnerVest. In a related deal, it has also expanded its PV portfolio to 256 MWp with an investment in three projects in Germany.

Portuguese utility EDP has agreed to buy a minority stake of up to 40% in Brazil’s Blue Sol Participações.

Australia’s Syrah Resources has signed a deal with Solarcentury to install 11.2 MW of solar and an 8.5 MW battery storage system at a mine in Mozambique.

Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy has revealed plans to launch a new solar tender in early 2021. Separately, the Asian Development Bank signed a deal last week to provide up to $175 million in loans to back the development of another 100 MW solar project in the country.

Japanese financial services giant Orix has agreed to buy an 80% stake in Spain’s Elawan Energy, as part of its plans to develop solar and wind projects.

A number of companies are now racing to find new materials to replace toxic or otherwise unsafe elements in PV modules, in pursuit of circular economic ideals. In a similar vein, many researchers are also looking for ways to recycle and reuse some of these materials at the end of solar panel lifetimes. In line with these efforts, artificial intelligence and machine learning now play a critical role in identifying new chemical footprints for PV modules and cells.

Equatorial Power and SustainSolar are installing containerized, off-grid solar battery power systems to support farming projects on an island in Lake Kivu.