Netherlands

The Dutch authorities have started building a national hydrogen network, while Fortescue has acquired a 12.5% stake in Norwegian Hydrogen.

To perform a wide range of tests on new types of PV modules under realistic conditions, EKO Instruments has introduced PV Blocks, an expandable all-in-one type of system  with capacity for up to 32 modules. It is targeted at research labs, module manufacturers, and testing organizations. 

Dutch company Triple Solar has launched a residential thermal battery with a heat loss rate ranging from 0.67 kWh/day to 0.84 kWh/day. The new product can reportedly provide hot water at temperatures ranging from 45C and 55C, with the minimum heat source temperature ranging between 65C and 80C.

Battolyser Systems has improved the efficiency of its Edison battery for industrial hydrogen production. The Dutch startup said the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) could be cut to €1.50 ($1.58) per kilogram by 2025. It has partnered with the European Investment Bank to support its expansion, with ambitious plans to hit 1 GW of production capacity by 2026.

A team of Dutch university students under the banner Top Dutch Solar Racing has installed perovskite silicon tandem cells in its entry in the 16th edition of Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The upcoming race is a six day, 3000 km expedition across the Australian continent, from Darwin to Adelaide.

The government of the Netherlands has allocated €416.6 million ($439.5 million) to fund the construction of utility-scale batteries connected to ground-mounted solar farms or large rooftop PV systems.

PV module importers in the Netherlands saw the solar module recycling fee increase from €6.50 ($6.8) per ton to €40 per ton in July. In a chat with pv magazine, Jan-Willem Jehee, operations manager at Stichting Zonne-energie Recycling Nederland (ZRN), explains the money generated from the fee hike will be used to finance a guarantee fund that would ‘absorb shocks in the market should one occur.’

With utility scale solar installations accelerating, Philip Wolfe, founder of PV data consultancy Wiki-Solar, drills into the data to highlight some interesting variations in relative progress around the world.

We Drive Solar and MyWheels have announced plans to transform the Dutch city of Utrecht into the world’s first municipality with a “neighborhood battery on wheels.” The system will feature 25 Ioniq 5 vehicles equipped with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) tech from Hyundai Motor.

The two research institutes said the multijunction solar cell is based on silicon, gallium indium phosphide (GaInP) and gallium arsenide (GaAs). The device utilizes a specially designed metal/polymer nanocoating that reportedly optimizes the distribution of light scattering beyond the total internal reflection critical angle in the cell.