Strategic Alliances

At the Smarter E Europe trade show in Munich, pv magazine caught up with Lior Handelsman, VP for marketing and product strategy and founder of Solaredge. The Israeli company made headlines as it went on an acquisition spree in the last year to leverage its position in the storage and EV charging business.

Renewable energy investment in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding China, will overtake spending on oil and gas exploration and production by 2020, finds Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy. And Australia is set to emerge as one of the leading investment destinations.

Traditional, centrist groupings the social democrats and conservatives lost ground in the weekend’s elections but while green parties gained seats, talk of a green wave washing over the continent appears to have been exaggerated.

Scatec wants to expand in Southeast Asia and Vietnam is poised to become a hot market thanks to a generous feed-in tariff and a government that has set tight carbon emission targets.

The fossil fuel company will partner with Slovakia’s InoBat to develop hydrogen-related projects in central and eastern Europe. Sourcing and supply of hydrogen will be the main focus of the cooperation.

The grouping, which includes UAE-based Masdar and Moroccan independent power producer Green of Africa, is planning to begin construction this year. The project is among those realized by the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy, as part of the Noor Solar Plan to develop a minimum 2 GW of capacity by next year.

Europe’s most important scientific research institutes have joined forces to make perovskite solar applications more than just a dream. The European Perovskite Initiative consortium is planning to draw up a perovskite white paper.

The Kazakh state-owned national atomic energy company has sold its three manufacturing units to an international consortium. The sale of its solar business has been planned since May 2017.

The companies have invested €17 million in the project. The energy stored, in the Brandenburg project, will be used to stabilize the grid and minimize the curtailment of wind farms.

The Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority is seeking public input on the massive Asian Renewable Energy Hub proposed for the country’s Pilbara region.