Emiliano Bellini
Tokyo Gas issues green bond to fund acquisition of 694 MW of PV
The Japanese gas provider wants to acquire a 63.2 MW solar plant in Japan and a 631 MW PV facility in the United States. It has issued a JPY 10 billion ($95.9 million) green bond to finance these transactions and support its other operations.
Solar-powered hydrogen generation hub in Oman
Oman’s Sohar Port and Freezone may become the Middle East’s first green hydrogen generation hub powered by several gigawatts of solar. The project is being supported by the Port of Rotterdam, which owns a 50% stake in the Omani port. Around 3.5 GW of PV is being planned for its area.
Eswatini launches tender to deploy PV plant at international airport
The selected independent power producer will be awarded a 20-year PPA. The tendered solar plant will have a minimum capacity of 850 kW.
Mongolia seeks EPC contractors for 10 MW solar plant
The solar project, located in Altai, is being developed with the financial support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Cooling effect of water for floating PV arrays
Norwegian researchers have quantified the cooling effect of water in direct contact with floating PV arrays. They tested a computational fluid dynamics model to estimate U-values and used it on a 6 kW floating system deployed by Ocean Sun.
Best tech for intermediate-band solar cells
Researchers in Spain have analyzed the most important technologies for the development of intermediate-band solar cells (IBSC), a solar PV technology that was conceived to exceed the Shockley–Queisser limit. They identified four established technologies that are currently being adopted to manufacture IB materials and IBSC prototypes. Their future goal is to find the appropriate material to fabricate cheap and very efficient IBSCs.
Solaredge sees slight profit growth in Q3
Despite a significant drop in turnover, the Israeli inverter maker was able to increase its net result in the third quarter of this year, in which it shipped around 1,415 MW of its products. In the first nine months of the year, the company’s revenue increased year-on-year from $1 billion to $1.1 billion.
Solar-powered cooling system for crop storage
South African scientists have used a PV system to keep tomatoes in cold storage. They linked an air-cooling system and evaporative cooling tech to a 3.5 kW array and 12 batteries and tested it for 28 days in September.
Hybrid salp swarm algorithm for MPPT optimization
Indian researchers have created a hybrid salp swarm algorithm to optimize MPPT tracking in PV systems under partial shading conditions. It is based on the swarming behavior of salps in the ocean.
Sudan wants to contract 500 MW of solar power
According to the country’s Ministry of Energy, an unspecified UAE solar company has committed to building several large scale PV plants across the country. These new projects would be granted a 20-year PPA and would be Sudan’s first solar parks.
