Highlights

The Western Australian government is talking to developers around the world about building a 1.5 GW wind and solar hydrogen hub at the Okajee Strategic Industrial Area. The state’s Mid West region has some of the world’s best solar and wind resources and they could drive the development of a local green hydrogen economy.

At a press conference today, executives at the European airplane manufacturer explained how it will be possible to have market-ready zero-emission planes within 15 years.

The government is aiming for 100 GW of installed generation capacity this decade but analysts suggest 170 GW will be needed to avoid electricity shortages and solar rooftops could hold the key.

SK Group has been chosen as the preferred bidder to build a portion of the 2.1 GW floating solar complex the South Korean government is planning near the Saemangeum tidal flats, on the Yellow Sea coast.

Victory in the economic realm (increasingly the case with solar, solar-plus-storage and wind) is no guarantee of market victory if the regulations are stacked against renewables.

“We’ve put together the best components to make a unique Australian-designed solution that is compliant to the new battery standards,” says EVO Power Managing Director Jamie Allen. Offgrid or upmarket – just add solar.

The quiet prairie landscape of Vulcan County, a rural stretch of southern Alberta, is set to become the site of Canada’s largest solar energy facility – the 400 MW Travers Solar Project. And with the region’s oil industry struggling with low demand and lower prices, solar could provide a lifeline to Alberta in meeting energy demand and providing jobs.

It is undeniable that easy access to energy has provided tremendous benefits to humankind over the last several decades. But that access has come at a price – one that society only discovered after the fact. From the thousand-year half-lives of spent nuclear fuel to the climate change impact of fossil fuels, access to energy has had a high environmental cost. Renewable energy, especially solar, seeks to provide that same access without the environmental cost. But what is the environmental impact of solar panels and inverters? Is society once again seeking to benefit from an energy source without understanding and addressing its environmental impact? Not this time, writes Green Electronics Council CEO Nancy Gillis.

The SNEC 2020 PV Power Expo opened on Aug. 8 in Shanghai. Unlike previous editions, the world’s largest solar trade fair was mostly attended by Chinese participants this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While the trade fair used to offer insights into global market trends, volumes were low this year due to a buyer/seller standoff amid rising prices caused by the recent accidents at polysilicon plants in Xinjiang. Also, there was little change in technologies. PV InfoLink’s Corrine Lin offers insights into cells and modules at SNEC 2020.

A number of companies are now racing to find new materials to replace toxic or otherwise unsafe elements in PV modules, in pursuit of circular economic ideals. In a similar vein, many researchers are also looking for ways to recycle and reuse some of these materials at the end of solar panel lifetimes. In line with these efforts, artificial intelligence and machine learning now play a critical role in identifying new chemical footprints for PV modules and cells.