Highlights

European development campaign the Electricity Financing Initiative has invested around €1.26 million in a €1.5 million bond issued by domestic solar products supplier Simusolar.

With the EU carbon price sat at record highs of around €50/ton, the authors of a report into the policies needed to drive a clean hydrogen economy in Europe say the storage medium won’t compete with its fossil fuel powered version even if carbon allowances cost four times that level.

Corporate renewable energy purchases are at an all time high. In Europe alone, a record-breaking 4 GW of corporate power purchase agreements were signed in 2020, bringing the overall total to 15 GW. Globally, this figure is even higher. As part of the UP Initiative’s quarterly theme on ‘Sustainable electricity and corporates’ critical solar role’, pv magazine spoke to Hannah Hunt, Impact Director at RE-Source, a European alliance of stakeholders representing clean energy buyers and suppliers, about how the business model landscape for such purchases is evolving, and the challenges the sector faces, including shortages in renewable energy supply across Europe.

According to Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory Co. Ltd, demand for solar PV in China could “effortlessly” surpass 100 GW in 2022, following a year of “flat” demand in 2021. It adds that a “massive overcapacity” situation in the production sector is looming. Meanwhile, the distributed solar PV market is on track for huge growth, with potential for annual demand to reach upwards of 20 GW+ from next year.

The small town of Yackandandah in northeast Victoria is one step closer to being powered by 100% renewable energy with the state’s first behind-the-meter, community-owned solar PV and battery energy storage system the latest addition to its community’s energy generation strategy.

A shipment of modules from the Chinese solar manufacturer was reportedly seized in the Netherlands last month on the orders of Korean rival Hanwha Q Cells, which persuaded a Dutch court the products might be distributed in third-party nations in infringement of one of its European patents.

The Australian government has awarded AUD 5 million ($3.7 million) to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to support hydrogen research.

Plus, the Norwegian government is set to devote €2.5 million into a joint venture trying to develop liquid organic hydrogen carrier solutions for shipping by the middle of the decade.

The Jinko Power unit of the solar manufacturer is planning a huge hybrid solar and wind project and China Energy Engineering is also making, slightly more modest, plans for generation capacity, as poly maker GCL continued its great PV project sell-off.

We will need 10.7 TW of clean energy generation capacity this decade to stay on track with the most ambitious of the climate change paths agreed in Paris, which would include plenty of solar investment and jobs, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.