Chinese investor buys 14% stake in Comtec Solar
Sun Da has moved to become the lithium energy storage and electric vehicle battery company’s second largest investor, raising HK$10.3 million for the business in the process.
Solar-plus-storage will start to make big inroads in the year ahead
By this time next year we may be able to wave goodbye to that old chestnut about renewables endangering security of supply. Elsewhere, the price of lithium – and the products it goes into – could go either way after tanking this year.
Indian PV to take off after gloomy 2019
India’s annual solar installations are set to exceed 10 GW in 2020, following a year marked by political uncertainty, module price increases associated with safeguard duties, and a lower number of awarded tenders. The outlook for battery energy storage installations for solar projects is particularly bleak, however, as such combinations in India can cost three to five times more than standalone renewable projects.
U.S. research teams aim for long-duration storage at $0.05/kWh
To get long-duration storage costs down to $0.05/kWh, research teams funded by ARPA-E are pursuing breakthroughs in flow batteries, hydrogen storage and other technologies – even thermovoltaics.
The year in solar, part IV: More storage and hydrogen advances as solar just kept getting cheaper
Battery innovations started to come thick and fast this quarter as the hunt for alternatives to lithium-ion intensified and the latest slew of solar tenders indicated the relentless pressure on solar power generation costs was showing no sign of abating.
Nigeria to install new PV mini-grids as domestic off-grid sector surges
Developer PowerGen has installed a new mini-grid in the country and plans to develop nine more projects with the support of the World Bank.
The year in solar, part III: Battery breakthroughs, inverter trouble, sustainable role models and new tech
Storage has long been expected to be the handmaiden of a renewable energy world and its long awaited advances started to finally emerge in the third quarter as researchers posited R&D achievements ranging from potentially potent tungsten disulfide nanotubes to the business case for 10-year solar panels.
The year in solar, part II: A lively show season, more legal shenanigans and rising panel efficiencies abound
Intersolar Europe is always a key date in the solar calendar but this year’s show had it all, including three panel-smuggling arrests. Elsewhere, wafers were getting bigger, efficiency records were tumbling and new technologies were emerging. There was also more news on the solar car ports fad and Hanwha’s ongoing legal tussle.
Mt Athos mini-grid shows Greece the way forward
A monastic community on the Mt Athos peninsula this year installed a solar-storage-diesel mini-grid which is set to be augmented by a biomass combined heat and power system in March.
The year in solar, part I: New modules, flat-pack solar and inverter turbulence
The first part of pv magazine’s review of 2019 considers Q1, when solar early adopter Italy offered an optimistic start to the year by fleshing out its plans for PV but uncertainty still clouded the world’s biggest solar market. The potential for household solar installations to rocket the world over – helped by ever cheaper panels – prompted strategic decisions in the inverter market and analyst expectations were confounded as the cobalt and lithium price plummeted, bringing the EV revolution a big step nearer.
