Utility Scale Storage

A study from Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology has predicted solar and other renewables can provide a global energy jobs revolution – just as four European operations revealed recent struggles.

The nation deployed around 923 MW of new solar last year. Around 350 MW came in the form of unlicensed projects given an extension to their grid-connection deadlines.

Solar deployment continued to pick up in the Middle East and North Africa in 2019, the Middle East Solar Industry Association has said in its annual report.

The minister of environment and energy transition has told parliament two auctions for large scale solar will be held this year, with a new procurement round now planned. The minister revealed energy storage may play a part in the capacity tenders.

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development will support half a dozen megawatt scale projects featuring solar in the Caribbean and Africa. In addition to around 42.5 MW of new solar capacity, the fund will also back the development of energy storage, waste-to-energy and biogas facilities.

A Department of Energy agency expects 17.4 GW (DC) of utility scale solar power generation capacity plus 6.6 GW of small scale PV will be installed in 2020. That volume would be 60% higher than the record, set in 2016.

The company will provide two 50 MW systems for investor the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund and project developer Low Carbon. The projects will be completed by the first quarter of 2021.

An international research group led by CIC EnergiGUNE, a Spanish research center, is designing new redox organic flow batteries. The researchers claim the batteries will offer longer duration, as well as higher power and energy densities, in a more environmentally sustainable format. The European Commission provided €3.8 million in funding for the initiative.

The cataclysmic bushfire season ravaging the nation is a reminder of the risk climate change poses to Australia’s economic and social prosperity. An international roadmap to freedom from fossil fuels by 2050 produced by the U.S.’ Stanford University says Australia needs another 280 GW of solar and tens of billions of dollars of investment to turn down the heat.

Sun Da has moved to become the lithium energy storage and electric vehicle battery company’s second largest investor, raising HK$10.3 million for the business in the process.