Asia

The Philippines’ Department of Energy (DOE) is moving ahead with plans to require solar system installers to officially register with it. The DOE says that only registered installers will be recommended to government entities seeking PV installation services.

Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL) has developed an alkaline electrolyzer in collaboration with India’s Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

Scientists from China have developed a novel optimization method for medium-depth ground source heat pumps, using an improved chaos particle swarm optimization. They coupled it with either a heat storage tank or a shallow borehole heat exchanger and found that both system typologies increase the heat pump’s coefficient of performance.

The rebound effect consists of a reduction in expected gains from a more resource-efficient technology as a result of behavioral or systemic change. An international research team has investigated this phenomenon in the residential PV segment in Vietnam and has found that it could happen in any country where the policy supporting solar power is not fully and scientifically explained.

Developers have until March 15 to express interest in setting up 1.5 GW of wind-solar hybrid power projects on a build-own-operate basis throughout India. The projects must connect to the interstate transmission system (ISTS).

Zaha Hadid Architects has unveiled the world’s first green hydrogen refueling network for recreational boats at marinas in Italy, while a German-Czech consortium has announced the development of a drivable hydrogen motorcycle.

GCL System Integration (GCL SI), Trina Solar, and Risen Energy have all announced significant increases in revenue and net profit for 2023.

Chinese inverter manufacturer Deye has developed a new all-in-one energy storage system (ESS) with 50 kW of output and 61.4 kWh of storage capacity. It features LiFePO4 batteries with a maximum temperature of less than 40 C.

The novel solar cell uses antimony trisulfide (Sb2S3) as the back surface field (BSF) layer. According to its creators, this layer can be included in conventional CIGS solar cells to improve their efficiency and reduce the absorber material’s cost.

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has submitted an interim national budget for fiscal 2024-25 to parliament, with a focus on residential rooftop solar, funding for offshore wind, and support for EV manufacturing and charging infrastructure.