Utility Scale PV

The US government says electrolysis could reduce clean-hydrogen production costs to $1/kg by 2031, while ABI Research claims the global levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) will become cost-competitive by the end of this decade, dropping to $2.50/kg.

A consortium of France’s EDF Renewables and China’s SPIC Huanghe Hydropower Development Co. (HHDC) has successfully bid for two solar projects in Saudi Arabia’s fifth renewable energy tender. The partners have signed two 25-year power purchase agreements with Saudi Power Procurement Co. for the energy.

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has introduced a new set of measures to support peer-to-peer energy trading. The new initiatives are expected to remove barriers for the further development of distributed PV projects.

The International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (IEA PVPS) is starting a new Task 20: Energy Hubs for Green Hydrogen. This joint effort with the IEA Wind and Hydrogen Technology Collaboration Programmes (TCPs) seeks to advance the integration of wind, solar, and hydrogen technologies into hybrid energy systems that produce green hydrogen efficiently and sustainably. Running from 2025 to 2028, Task 20 will address the practical, technical, environmental, and societal challenges associated with hybrid energy hubs, providing actionable insights for their implementation on a global scale.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that European solar generation displayed a sharp north-south divide in November. Southern Europe benefited from a stabilizing high-pressure system that deflected much of the Atlantic’s moisture-laden air masses northward.

The United States is expected to grow its solar fleet by more than 25% from 2023 levels, with over 8 GW of distributed solar and more than 40 GW of utility-scale solar expected to be installed.

The Chinese manufacturer said its new i-TOPCon Ultra panel is part of the Vertex N family and is intended for applications in utility-scale projects. It plans to begin mass production of the new modules in the second quarter of 2025, with an initial annual capacity of 10 GW.

Above Surveying, a U.K.-based services and software company, announced adding large-scale PV condition monitoring to its Solargain digital twin tool as a result of its partnership with Kiwa PI Berlin and 2DegreesKelvin.

DAS Solar has unveiled a new, flexible PV mounting system. The company claims the system, now installed over a fishery in China, has already withstood a particularly strong typhoon, demonstrating its reliability.

Malaysian solar specialist Founder Group Ltd. has secured a conditional letter of award to build 100 MW of solar in Malaysia. It says the energy will help to power an AI data center.