Germany

RWE plans to build a storage facility to provide grid-balancing services for its power plants in Germany. The batteries will be installed at two RWE power plants in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Radovan Kopecek, an expert on interdigitated back-contacted (IBC) tech, says that IBC solar panels could capture more than 50% of the global market by 2030, potentially pushing TOPCon products out of competition. He told pv magazine how this transition might materialize and discussed the tech advancements that could make it possible.

Researchers in Singapore have developed a new light-triggered coupled oxygen evolution mechanism that builds on past oxygen evolution research. Oman, meanwhile, has announced a new hydrogen strategy.

The city of Cottbus, Germany, has passed a resolution to expedite the development of a 21 MW floating solar project. It will be built on a former mine site, with construction set to begin in the spring of 2023.

Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) says that 691 MW of new PV systems were subsidized under the country’s EEG renewables incentive program in September.

Qingdao University researchers have synthesized high-performance titanium dioxide-based anode materials with excellent cycling stability, while German scientists have used operando techniques to observe how solvated sodium ions embed themselves in electrodes.

A new study has calculated that the globalized PV module supply chain has saved billions for PV installers in Germany, the US and China. It also found that if strong nationalistic policies that limit the free flow of talent and capital were implemented going forward, solar panel costs would be 20-25% higher by 2030.

Researchers from Germany have designed a tandem perovskite silicon PV cell that reportedly has lower reflection losses and improved open-circuit voltage. They demonstrated a device with submicrometre-periodic nanotextures and an improved back-reflector design.

The Southeast Asian country considers hydrogen as a key potential decarbonisation pathway, seeing business opportunities in three related specific fields: finance, shipping and aviation. Meanwhile, Evos, Hydrogenious, and Port of Amsterdam bet on thermal oil benzyl toluene for delivery of hydrogen before 2028.

German company Mefa Befestigungs- und Montagetechnik has developed absorbers made of polypropylene that are intended to simplify the use of brine heat pumps. The novel technology should make it possible to combine multiple heat sources, including water, earth, air and also ice storage all within a single system.