Middle East

Enerwhere has designed a solar-plus-storage mobile unit for offgrid locations such as oil and gas fields and construction sites. It can be adapted to different needs and is scalable up to megawatt-scale projects.

The Turkish authorities will provide winning projects in the nation’s latest solar tender with 15-year power purchase guarantees. Domestic content requirements for equipment have played an important role in the procurement exercise.

Researchers in Saudi Arabia have built an inverted perovskite-silicon tandem device with a 1 nm thick interlayer based on magnesium fluoride (MgFx). They claim it can stop voltage losses and increase power conversion efficiency, while retaining 95.4% of its initial efficiency after 1,000 hours.

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) wants to produce silicon metal to create an integrated supply chain for the PV industry in the United Arab Emirates.

ACWA Power and Emirates Water and Electricity Co. (EWEC) have commissioned the first phase of the Al Taweelah Independent Water Plant in the United Arab Emirates. The facility, which can produce more than 6.4 million cubic meters of water per day, sources some of its power from a nearby solar park.

The futuristic Neom City will be powered exclusively by renewable energy, but a co-optimization approach with the water sector will be crucial for desalination and sustainable water supplies. Saudi scientists have assessed different system configurations and determined that solar-plus-storage would deliver the lowest levelized cost of energy.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority says its novel redox flow battery stack offers better electrolyte distribution, which could result in higher power densities and lower manufacturing costs.

Scientists in Iraq have applied an amorphous carbon nitride (CNx) thin film as an anti-reflective layer in commercial crystalline silicon solar cells. They claim they were able to improve their efficiency from 5.52 to 13.05%.

Researchers from Australia’s University of Wollongong presented a study for alkaline electrolysis where the liquid electrolyte is continuously drawn up a separator, leading to bubble-free operation at the electrodes. Meanwhile, Korean researchers developed a novel heterostructured catalyst, Argentina’s province of Tierra del Fuego presented its hydrogen strategy, Lhyfe and shipyard Chantiers de l’Atlantique are working on the world’s first offshore renewable hydrogen production demonstrator, and Saudi Aramco outlined its hydrogen targets in its first sustainability report.

Emirates Water and Electricity Co. has included nuclear among the “clean energy” sources that will generate certificates in its upcoming auction.