Installations

The Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation in Malaysia is teaming up with private and public partners in the country to offer citizens financial incentives and discounts when adopting solar. It follows a government rebate scheme introduced in April.

Modeling shows that shifting just one-third of the electricity consumption of commercial and institutional buildings in Australia to the middle of the day, coinciding with peak solar supply, would create almost 12 GW of new peak capacity in the National Electricity Market.

State-owned utility Egyptian Electricity Holding Company is requesting expressions of interest for the design, building and operation of a 8.2 MW solar plant and 2 MW/4MWh battery energy storage system, located at the site of an existing microgrid in western Egypt.

Tests conducted by Canadian researchers at the NREL’s testing field in Colorado have shown that ground reflectors based on high-density polyethylene can significantly increase bifacial PV plant performance. They stressed the profitability of this technology is strictly dependent on the location and warned avoiding to combine it with inverter clipping.

A 4.4 MW solar project featuring modular PV technology from 5B has commenced operations in Australia. The project includes 2 MW/1 MWh of battery storage systems from UK supplier Aggreko.

A group of Chinese researchers has made a first attempt to integrate pumped hydro with compressed air storage and has found the latter may help the former to better deal with large head variations.

Solar panels are often tilted to a stowed position to prevent wind damage to utility-scale assets. Array Technologies introduced a passive stowing strategy that reportedly prevents unnecessary production losses.

The US Department of Energy says it is aiming for “clean” hydrogen production costs of $2/kg by 2026 and $1/kg by 2031.

Austrian manufacturer Sonnenkraft has developed a terracotta glass-glass module that aesthetically blends in with tiled roofs. It has an efficiency rating of 20.02%.

The Swiss Federal Office of Energy says the number of PV installations registered for subsidies with Pronovo, a Swiss government agency, rose 81% year on year in the first three months of 2024.