Strategic Alliances

The fossil fuel companies plus electrical systems business Thales have launched a joint research laboratory in Paris-Saclay to develop AI technologies to meet the needs of critical systems such as energy production facilities.

The debt-saddled PV project developer appears to again be piling up credit lines as it awaits the outcome next week of its latest, $231 million Chinese state-backed bail-out.

The Chinese-Canadian module manufacturer will supply panels to the U.K.-based developer over several years. The modules are destined for projects in the United States and Australia.

The Swiss-headquartered technology corporation is restructuring, stirring up the figures. That effect was amplified by acquisitions and sell-offs last year with ABB announcing in July it would hand over its inverter business to Italian company Fimer.

The luxury car maker is betting on the timely development of market-ready solid-state batteries. Mercedes will work with the Canadian research institute to quickly integrate new technology into field applications to cut development cycle times.

PV Cycle has said it collected more than 280,000 solar panels at the end of their lifecycle in France last year, including 200 tons from the nation’s overseas territories.

Electronics corporations Panasonic, Kyocera and LG have filed results for the nine months to December 31. All three reported uplifts because of their solar activity and LG has said it will dive deeper into energy storage. Panasonic is deepening its commitment to automotive batteries through a new joint venture with Toyota.

The move, by Taitong Industry Ltd, will come as a fresh blow to the Chinese module manufacturer, which twice failed to go public – in the U.S. and China – and whose project development business suffered a battering in China when Beijing reined in subsidies in 2018.

A Dutch company has modified an electric delivery van to feature a solar roof for the supply of cooling and freezing equipment in its load area.

Under the umbrella of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 initiative, the research platform ERA has initiated a new batch of future energy projects. Looking at the list of winning projects, it is easy to tell that hydrogen, virtual power plant, and blockchain projects are really at the center of what Europe thinks will be important for its net-zero carbon plans by 2050.