Pilar Sánchez Molina
Solar desalination via floating PV in Spain
The Agua+S project under development in the Spanish region of Andalucia is aimed at combining a desalination plant, a pumping station network, and an onshore, floating photovoltaic plant in a single project design. According to its developers this is the first time that these three facilities have been combined together in a fully reproducible design that could be replicated in any river basin that has a reservoir and is close to the coast, to produce fresh water for both irrigation and human consumption.
Sonnedix acquires Polish solar developer Sun Power Energy
The Polish company has a PV project pipeline of over 1GW.
Fully autonomous robot for solar O&M
OnSight Technology has developed a tele-operated vehicle to clean solar arrays. It is equipped with a radiometric thermal imaging camera and an optical zoom camera backed by artificial intelligence. It has a range of 12 hours and a speed of 1.6 km per hour.
Solar parks could help to increase rainfall in arid regions
New modeling suggests that the reduction in albedo caused by large-scale solar plants could double rainfall in the Red Sea coastal plain of Saudi Arabia.
Macquarie-led consortium acquires Reden Solar
French solar developer Reden Solar was on sale since October. The €2.5 billion transaction is expected to be finalized in the third quarter of this year.
Hybridizing PV, redox flow batteries and geothermal heat pumps
A Spanish consortium is equipping one of Madrid’s largest metro and bus stations with a hybrid system that combines PV, geothermal pumps, and vanadium redox flow batteries to provide cooling and heating.
Aurinka wants to open 300MW solar module factory in Spain
The factory is expected to begin operating with an annual capacity of 300 MW and to produce bifacial modules with a power output of 600 W.
Flexible solar panels made in Israel for Amazon’s facility in France
Apollo Power is providing its flexible solar modules for a €750,000 photovoltaic project planned by Amazon in France. Each of the module units provided by the Israeli manufacturer has a size of 2,040×6,130mm and weighs in at only 3kg/m².
Argentinian oil supplier starts construction on 300MW solar park
The Parque Solar Zonda project is expected to be built by Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) in three 100 MW phases and to require a total surface of 300 hectares.
Spain largest PPA market in Europe last year with almost 4 GW of deals
According to Swiss consultancy Pexapark, around 11 GW of power purchase agreements were closed in Europe last year. For 2022, the analyst expects shorter deals and the presence of more new entrants.
