Norway

India headquartered multinational Reliance Industries, through its subsidiary Reliance New Energy Solar Limited, yesterday announced the acquisition of Norway headquartered module manufacturer REC Group. The move comes as Reliance pushes forward with its US$10 billion plan to move in on the renewable energy industry, having also this week announced acquisition of a 40% share in EPC provider Sterling & Wilson.

The Dutch start-up behind the world’s first commercial grid-independent solar car has generated significant investment this year. Deliveries of the prototype Lightyear One are now set for next summer.

A Norwegian consortium led by Scatec is planning to build a hybrid hydropower-floating PV plant at an unspecified location in West Africa. Building both facilities simultaneously will help its developers define a series of parameters for proper sizing, optimization and design, and set a benchmark for future projects of this kind.

A Norwegian consortium has built an industrial heat pump that can reach a temperature of up to 180 degrees Celsius. The machine can be used with different industrial processes that rely on steam as an energy carrier and can reduce a facility’s energy consumption by between 40% and 70%, as it enables the recovery of low-temperature waste heat.

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.

The manufacturer plans to start production of the performance-enhanced solar modules in August. The first customers should then receive the products in October.

An energy transition investment report published this week has also revealed the former world record low price for solar power announced by the Al Dhafra project in Abu Dhabi last year, has fallen even lower since.

Plus, as the European Commission prepares to present its ‘Fit for 55’ climate change package tomorrow, European companies are continuing to develop hydrogen plans, including Shell in Norway and Siemens in Germany.

Plus, the Norwegian government is set to devote €2.5 million into a joint venture trying to develop liquid organic hydrogen carrier solutions for shipping by the middle of the decade.

Norwegian researchers have conducted a study to assess the technical feasibility of solar parks in polar regions. They found out that snowdrifts may be a major issue but they also believe that snow accumulation can be reduced through snow fences and proper system design.