Sustainability

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore has installed a 5.2 kW solar system linked to 150 Ah of lead-acid battery storage in a project supported by the Sunrise program led by Swansea University, in Wales.

The City of London Corporation signed a £40m solar power purchase agreement on the same day the prime minister outlined a net-zero strategy which failed to even mention solar.

A €62m Italo-French program will reduce risk for project developers and a €20m Spanish scheme will fund off-grid installations in sub-Saharan Africa.

Offgrid solar expert GOGLA has just issued an E-waste Toolkit as part of its drive to establish a circular-powered renewable energy economy. Tying into the UP initiative’s Q4 circular manufacturing theme, pv magazine interviewed Drew Corbyn, GOGLA’s head of performance and investment, and the project manager in charge of the non-profit’s new e-waste management project.

The regulation needs updating to incorporate a raised emissions reduction ambition which will target a 38-40% fall in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

CEA-INES, the French National Institute for Solar Energy, is gearing up to host the fourth edition of its ECO-PV workshop. Originally scheduled to be held this spring, Covid-19 has seen it pushed back to March 2021. Experts in the field of solar sustainability will present on, and discuss, “Photovoltaics: towards a sustainable industry”, with topics ranging from recycling, lifecycle assessment and European policy to manufacturing and the circular economy. In an interview, the institute speaks to pv magazine about the current state of solar sustainability and its goals for future work.

Solarpower Europe has called on member states to put solar and battery storage front and center when it comes to drawing up the Recovery and Resilience plans needed to secure a slice of the bloc’s proposed €672.5 billion post-Covid stimulus package.

Even as solar installations continue to grow and renewables make their way further into the energy mix, a look at the bigger energy picture reveals a worrying lack of commitment among utilities to a transition away from fossil fuels. This was the conclusion of researchers at Oxford University, who found that globally, less than half of all utilities have prioritized the development of renewables over the past 20 years. Even among those that have focused on solar and wind, just 15% actually reduced commitments to fossil fuels at the same time.

European electric transmission company body ENTSO-E has unveiled details of a project to install 11 GWh of electrolyzed hydrogen storage capacity across ten locations around the French capital by the end of the decade.

The Japanese tech giant and German power company have followed the lead of General Electric by promising not to take on any new coal power station contracts.