Technology and R&D

Brookfield’s bold ambitions for Australia have reached a new level, with the global asset manager signing an agreement with India-based Reliance Industries to explore the production of solar panels, long-duration battery storage, and other renewable energy equipment.

The Mango Power M includes a hybrid inverter with 18 kW solar input and can be paired with an electric vehicle charger.

Scientists in the United States developed an innovative method to observe the inner workings of lithium-ion batteries and found that cracks which form in the electrode – something manufacturers do their best to minimize – may actually have benefits in allowing for faster charging. The work also challenges assumptions on how certain particles behave inside a battery, with potential consequences for their future design.

Sineng Electric says it will build a new factory in China’s Jiangsu province, while Huasun says it has commissioned 3 GW of bifacial heterojunction cell production capacity in Anhui province.

Shanghai University scientists have started researching molybdenum-doped nickel-cobalt phosphide catalysts for hydrogen production, and Indian scientists have devised a method to produce hydrogen from methanol.

With the rapid growth in electric vehicle (EV) demand bringing fears of a mountain of EV battery waste piling up further down the line, the EU-Swiss government-funded Recirculate program is planning how to keep batteries in use for much longer before they head to recyclers.

Romania is resuming the development of the Tarniţa Lăpuşteşti pumped hydro storage project, with a planned capacity of 500 MW to 1 GW. It will be the first installation of its kind in the country.

Pexapark, a Swiss consultancy, has studied energy storage drivers, value streams, contractual agreements, and regional perspectives in Europe. It says that one obstacle to deployment is the inability to properly model revenue, and notes that 15% of companies plan to use AC coupling for projects in the next three years.

A new process is described as a tool to assess the value of deferring, relocating, or abandoning PV projects under development in uncertain market conditions. It reportedly allows accommodating different sources of uncertainties with different stochastic features, as well as accounting for the various managerial flexibilities embedded in most solar projects.

Massimo Albino Russo, head of business development for Enerqos Energy Solutions, recently spoke with pv magazine Italy about its smart O&M service to detect dysfunctions in solar arrays hit by hail. The Ameresco Group subsidiary uses drones and artificial intelligence to deal with PV system damage.