Silicon metal and aluminum industries hit by China power shortages
A combination of booming demand for coal-fired power and a shortage of the black stuff – exacerbated by a political row with Australia – have forced up prices to the extent fossil fuel generators are making a loss on every unit of electricity they produce. pv magazine‘s Vincent Shaw considers the potential solutions.
Solar hybrid system is just the cup of tea for Tanganda
Johannesburg-based clean power business Blockpower is working on installing a back-up power supply across three agricultural estates in Zimbabwe.
Tesla Powerwalls in California join the movement to create virtual power plants
Made up of distributed residential energy storage, these “plants” stabilize the grid and often end the need for new fossil generation. Tesla customers in California are the latest to join the movement.
Grid connection is key culprit as investor confidence wanes in Australia
Ongoing grid connection issues and concerns about Australia’s unpredictable regulatory and policy environment have been identified as the key culprits with a new report revealing investor confidence in the nation’s renewable energy sector has slumped to a five-year low.
The Hydrogen Stream: Ineos to invest £25m in HydrogenOne fund as Shell fires up its 10 MW electrolyzer
Plus, the Norwegian government is set to devote €2.5 million into a joint venture trying to develop liquid organic hydrogen carrier solutions for shipping by the middle of the decade.
‘Residential batteries are less profitable than selling excess power to the grid’
Although self-consumption of solar power is the optimal economic approach, the expense of household batteries at present outweighs the increased ability they offer to use electricity generated on the roof. Whether aggregated ‘virtual batteries’ offer better returns is an open question, due to lack of electricity company transparency.
Netherlands licenses first EV smart charging company to provide grid services
The NewMotion electric vehicle (EV) charging business owned by Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell has become the first such entity to obtain a licence to provide grid balancing services in the Netherlands. Dutch grid company Tennet has licensed NewMotion to provide megawatt-scale balancing services to maintain grid frequency at 50 Hz by varying the rate at […]
Industrial green hydrogen could become a global commodity but local production is needed for transport uses
Long distance, point-to-point transport of green hydrogen for industrial use can harness the cheap solar electricity available in some parts of the world but distributing the energy-storage gas to individual refueling stations, for vehicle fuel cell use, will likely have to depend on production nearby.
Tennet begins internet-of-things grid balancing project
Household heat pumps, EV chargers and rooftop solar panels will be able to earn their owners benefits in return for helping to balance grid networks struggling to accommodate new solar and wind power generation.
Delta launches 50 kW inverter for commercial arrays
The 98.7%-efficient device features six MPPT trackers and an overall input voltage range that is from 200 V to 1000 V.
