Markets & Policy

The Australian Labor Party has released a National Hydrogen Plan, which involves directing AU$1 billion in CEFC funding towards clean hydrogen projects, $100 million in ARENA grants for hydrogen technology refuelling infrastructure, and $40 million from the CEFC’s Innovation Fund to help commercialise new hydrogen technologies and businesses. Looking towards clean energy exports, the plan will provide $3 million in funding to Queensland coal port in Gladstone with the aim of creating a hydrogen hub.

Despite recent efforts to improve the power network, in order to host more generation capacity from large-scale solar and renewables, Dutch transmission system operators TenneT and Enexis have said that there is very limited capacity for more solar in the provinces of Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel.

Wood Mackenzie’s number-crunchers are the latest analysts queueing up to predict a bumper year ahead for PV, with falling prices, rising efficiency rates and booming markets outside China all on the cards. And it could be a make-or-break year for mega-projects, says Wood Mac.

The hybrid plants will be developed as independent power producer (IPP) projects at 11 off-grid sites. The largest project will be developed on the island of Mazeira, off the east coast of mainland Oman in the Arabian Sea.

The Baltic nation installed 90 MW of PV last year, four times more than it had done since it began adopting solar. The growth was down to a new regulation issued by the government in June and the big push came mainly from small installations.

German and Greek scientists are working with industrial partners on the technological feasibility of making solar modules based on perovskite absorbers. The prototypes should be freely configurable in size, shape and color.

The Japanese module maker has set a new record for CIS thin film cell efficiency. The company, with Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, achieved 23.35% conversion on a cell measuring 1 cm². The record was confirmed by the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.

With a $3bn debt pile, gearing of 73.1% and $127m due for repayment in around three months’ time, the directors of the former United PV Group want shareholders to dilute their investment by issuing shares worth more than 40% of an enlarged company, with a chunk of the proceeds coming from public funds.

The 25-year agreement relates to a 6 MW solar plant that will meet up to 4% of the electricity demand of a facility owned by the Arabian Cement Company, in Egypt’s Suez governorate. The project is being financed by local bank QNB AlAhli under the EBRD’s Green Economy Program.

Homeowners and businesses with small-scale solar arrays have fought off a threat to priority treatment for excess energy they want fed back into national grids. The EU has refused to heed a call to treat such generators on the same terms as giant utilities.