Energy Storage

U.S.-based Rondo Energy will operate the world’s largest battery factory in Thailand, two and a half times the size of Tesla’s Gigafactory.

Indian state-owned hydropower producer NHPC and Grid Corp. of Odisha (GRIDCO) have agreed to develop 2 GW of pumped storage and 1 GW of solar energy projects.

Scientists led by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have designed panel-like photoreactors relying on a water-splitting photocatalyst that could produce hydrogen on rooftops or dedicated solar farms. They claim the photoreactors have high economic potential because of their ‘extremely’ low costs.

UK-based developer Aura Power plans to build a large scale storage system in Maddaloni, southern Italy. It secured final approval for the project in early June.

The world’s most efficient energy network, at an Antarctic research base, has had a solar upgrade.

Finnish researchers have said in a new report that northern European countries could produce cheap hydrogen domestically, while TotalEnergies, Schneider Electric and other companies signed new hydrogen project deals.

A British research group has investigated the economic feasibility of solar-powered heat pumps in China and has found that the country’s northern regions offer the lowest payback time of less than three years. As for the country’s southern regions, however, the adoption of PV-linked heat pumps was found to be “uneconomical.”

In another interview from the series held at Intersolar 2023, pv magazine spoke with Paolo Rocco Viscontini, president of the PV association Italia Solare. He said the Italian solar market is now inevitably poised to see more growth across all segments this year and during the current decade. He also spoke about market drivers, current demand, and the PPA business, as well as large-scale and small-sized storage.

The Ethiopian government has secured financing from the World Bank through the Access to Distributed Electricity and Lighting in Ethiopia (ADELE) program for 20 solar minigrid projects.

According to EUPD Research figures, PV system prices for single-family homes in Germany rose slightly in the second quarter of 2023. Despite falling module prices, analysts do not expect costs to fall significantly in the coming months. Prices also depend heavily on installation context, component selection, and region, which is why price comparisons with average figures, such as those used by Enpal in emails to private households, are not particularly meaningful.