Articles written by Tristan Rayner

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Crypto’s energy conundrum In a financial world of stocks, bonds, foreign exchange, and credit cards, trillions of dollars are traded daily, with money flows handled by a bevy of databanks. In the world of cryptocurrency, billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin are traded through as many as 400,000 transactions per day, consuming the energy supply of a modernized country. The quirk is a “proof of work” feature that provides decentralized security. Is Bitcoin’s energy usage all for nothing, or is it a game-changer for renewable assets and generators? Tristan Rayner explores.
Tristan Rayner
Nov 02, 2021
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Applications & Installations
The changing landscape of the modular marketplace  The modular solar marketplace is growing, especially in Australia where remote mining and agricultural sites appreciate the benefits of compact, movable solar. One new entrant is Western Australia’s CDI Energy with its “Rapid Solar Module”, which CDI founder and CEO Darryl Bower told pv magazine is up to 30% cheaper than fixed axis alternatives.
Blake Matich, Tristan Rayner
Oct 18, 2021
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Applications & Installations
Sungrow launches SG350HX, its most powerful string inverter in Europe Sungrow’s new utility-scale string inverter can supply a maximum of 352 kW, just a year after it launched a 250 kW string inverter that was billed as the world’s most powerful. The new inverter arrives mid-2022.
Tristan Rayner
Oct 13, 2021
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Applications & Installations
Boom times for the UK’s residential solar market? The U.K.’s sudden energy resource squeeze is seeing price increases on gas and electricity and is creating a solar panel boom, too.
Tristan Rayner
Oct 12, 2021
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Bringing costs down to earth Rising efficiencies and the plummeting cost of solar modules over the past few years, recent months notwithstanding, are leading innovators toward ideas that may look unusual in the current tracker-dominated world of large-scale solar parks. Advocates of the new approaches argue that they leave traditional models looking decidedly flat by comparison.
Tristan Rayner
Sep 07, 2021
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Hot thermal hopes Thermal energy storage is dense, efficient, and suitable for greenfield and brownfield projects, with a potentially long lifespan. It can also be built with recyclable or low-impact storage materials. So why is it taking so long to achieve widespread commercial success? Tristan Rayner explores the latest developments.
Tristan Rayner
Aug 09, 2021
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Applications & Installations
Canadian asset management co. agrees to acquire Brazil’s largest PV product distributor The transaction should be finalized by the end of the month, with the deal amounting to a $320 million equity investment.
Emiliano Bellini, Tristan Rayner
Aug 06, 2021
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Applications & Installations
Tesla sells Maxwell Technologies but dry cell tech for lithium-ion batteries retained Tesla acquired the Californian supercapacitor maker in 2019, leading some to speculate its EVs would use ‘supercaps’ for top acceleration. Two years on, it appears Elon Musk has moved on and sold Maxwell to UCAP Power, but Tesla has retained the company’s dry electrode tech.
Tristan Rayner
Jul 30, 2021
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Applications & Installations
UK power generation in 2020: Renewables up to 43% Solar contributed 28% of the U.K.’s total renewable energy generation, which was dominated by wind power. The proportion of fossil fuels in the energy mix fell to a record low last year, at 37.7%.
Tristan Rayner
Jul 29, 2021
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