Woodside lands agreement for 50 MW first-stage solar project
Woodside Energy has secured an agreement with the traditional owners of land on which it plans to build the first 50 MW stage of a potential 500 MW solar power plant in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
France installed 1.71 GW of solar in January-September period
France’s cumulative installed PV capacity reached 15.8 GW at the end of September.
Heat pumps competitive with gas boilers in some markets, says IEA
Th International Energy Agency (IEA) says unsubsidized heat pumps are already competitive with gas boilers in mature markets like the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, and China. It says global sales will soar to record levels by 2030.
Rio Tinto to spend big on solar, storage
Rio Tinto plans to invest $402 million (AUD 600 million) to build two new solar farms and battery energy storage systems in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, as part of its efforts to decarbonize its iron ore operations.
Agrivoltaics to reduce water evaporation
Chinese scientists assessed water evaporation on plots of land covered by two different kinds of agrivoltaic arrays and managed to significantly reduce evaporation in both cases. They looked at the relationship between cumulative surface evaporation and evaporation time.
Novel method to calculate variations in temperature coefficients of solar modules
Brazilian scientists have assessed variations in temperature coefficients in solar modules to determine whether there is a relationship between the dependence of these coefficients and irradiance. They claim their work could be used to improve PV module performance modeling.
California to cut solar net-metering payments by 75%
A vote is expected mid-December on a regulatory change that could severely dampen the value of new residential rooftop solar installations in California.
India installed 11.2 GW of solar in January-September period
India added 9.3 GW of utility-scale solar in the first nine months of 2022, as well as 1.3 GW of rooftop capacity and 600 MW of offgrid PV projects.
Luminescent solar concentrators for agrivoltaics, greenhouses
Moroccan researchers have proposed the use of luminescent solar concentrators for power generation in greenhouses and agrivoltaic projects. They say they are capable of producing electricity in low-light illumination and converting ultraviolet light to visible light that could be used for crops.
Italy hits 959 MW/1,826 MWh of distributed storage capacity
Italy added 303 MW/632 MWh of distributed energy storage capacity in the first nine months of 2022. The segment continues to grow in the country, led by the regions of Lombardy and Veneto.
