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.
The Hydrogen Stream: GCL will use Ethiopian natural gas to feed its ammonia and blue hydrogen
Plus there is news this week of a green hydrogen tie-up in India, plans for another German production facility, and of new hydrogen transport networks for Switzerland and the U.S.
Spark welcomes takeover talks as buyout bid reaches almost $4bn
Australian electricity network part-owner Spark Infrastructure said it will welcome other bids if a $5.2 billion (USD$3.85) billion takeover bid by a consortium fails, implying a sale is on the cards.
Europe had just 650 MW of solar cell manufacturing capacity at the end of 2020
The latest update to the Photovoltaics Report produced by research organization the Fraunhofer ISE has offered up the usual slew of interesting stats on the state of solar across the continent.
Appeals court upholds ITC patent finding
JinkoSolar did not infringe a patent asserted by Hanwha Q CELLS according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which affirmed an International Trade Commission finding from 2020.
The Hydrogen Stream: Air Liquide eyes South Korea as Cummins announces fuel-cell truck plans
With Australia prepping plans for vast green hydrogen and ammonia production facilities, two of the country’s state governments are trying to drum up the end-user market as agreements are signed to drive use of the gas in Ukraine and Poland.
Waaree completes supply of 300+ MW solar modules for American project
The Indian-based PV module maker supplied mono PERC solar PV modules for a 250 MW project stage for a large Californian project, the 2.7GW Westlands Solar Park, located south of Fresno in California.
Tesla Powerwalls in California join the movement to create virtual power plants
Made up of distributed residential energy storage, these “plants” stabilize the grid and often end the need for new fossil generation. Tesla customers in California are the latest to join the movement.
Interoperable SCADA protocols for PV inverters
NREL researchers have developed interoperable SCADA protocols for PV inverters. Two new sets of codes were conceived to enable legacy inverters, which are inverters that are not capable of providing some or all of the grid support functions to participate in advanced distribution management.
Residential solar demand is ‘through the roof’
One question is whether or not manufacturers can keep up with demand, particularly inverters and semiconductors.
