Hydrogen

PV manufacturers unable to live with proposed new quality guidelines and project developers alike are set to be squeezed out by the state in the world’s biggest solar market, according to Frank Haugwitz, who has compiled a market update as preparations for the next five-year plan gather pace.

The Japanese marque has laid out plans to hold a controlling stake in a JV planned in Beijing this year which will also involve four state-owned carmakers.

An Ieefa report has suggested the cost of generating electricity from solar will be near zero in the world’s sunniest regions by 2030-40 – despite what the naysayers at the International Energy Agency might think.

A €15.2 million power-to-X-to-power hydrogen storage facility is being planned in Saillat-sur-Vienne, in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The project partners want to use renewable energy from the grid and water to produce and store electrolyzed hydrogen. It would then be mixed with natural gas to power an upgraded, 12 MW Siemens SGT-400 industrial gas turbine which previously generated steam for local manufacturing and would be able to return power to the grid to meet demand.

The International Energy Agency has acknowledged dramatic falls in energy investment caused by the Covid-19 crisis but said renewables, including PV, offered an attractive proposition to investors as the dust settled, given their enticing economics and short turnaround times.

The material was used by scientists in the U.S. in electrochemical cells which use electricity to separate steam into hydrogen and oxygen. The researchers say the oxide of perovskite used in the electrode improves cell performance and reduces operating temperatures.

German company GP Joule wants to build hydrogen transport infrastructure in North Friesland. The electricity generated by five wind farms in the region will be converted to green hydrogen to be delivered to filling stations in Husum and Niebüll and used by two fuel-cell buses and five cars.

Today’s edition of the Official Journal of the French Republic featured two long-awaited decrees: One concerning the multi-year energy program and another on national carbon budgets and the state’s low-carbon strategy.

A thinktank has studied whether increased solar energy would contribute significantly to reducing the carbon footprint of the French and European electricity systems in an attempt to respond to a common French refrain the nation needs no further decarbonization of energy because it has nuclear power.

German companies Uniper and Siemens will cooperate on joint projects to advance the use of green hydrogen and sector coupling. Conventional, gas-fired hydrogen production plants will be gradually transformed as part of the initiative.