Russia

Scientists in Russia have designed a whole series of new compounds that could serve as catholytes and anolytes in organic redox flow batteries. The materials promise to open up new pathways for further research, and overcome some of the challenges for organic redox flow batteries in commercial, large-scale energy storage projects.

That was just one of the revelations of the latest Dentons’ Guide to renewables investment in Europe, which also noted solar plants could be switched off in Slovakia, Ireland could go either way on clean power pricing, and Luxembourg is struggling with a surprising headache.

Russian scientists have developed a holographic film based on prismatic concentrators that reduces the operating temperature of solar panels, including thermal-photovoltaic devices. They claim the patented, low-cost technique can even improve PV module efficiency in cloudy weather.

The new net metering provisions came into force three years after the legislative process was launched. Power surplus will be sold to the grid at a rate of up to RUB2/kWh ($0.026).

Russian nuclear energy giant Rosatom has acquired a 49% stake in Enertech International, a South Korean lithium-ion battery specialist, and has announced plans to build a gigafactory at an unspecified location in Russia. The start of production is scheduled for 2025.

A team of researchers from St. Petersburg say they can build a circuit interruptor that works directly into the current collector. The device operates via chemical reactions and would be thus more reliable than current battery monitoring system approaches.

Porous nanostructured microspheres made of copper, iron, and iron oxide were used by an international research team as negative anode material in lithium-ion batteries. The new technique is claimed to provide three times more capacity than batteries based on graphite anodes.

Off-grid PV has become a much more viable solution than diesel power generators to bring electricity to Russia’s remotest regions. Furthermore, solar-plus-storage is able to deliver with no interruption 24 hours per day and seven days per week, while fuel availability means diesel power can only ensure between four and seven hours per day.

The production equipment was bought by Russian nanotechnology specialist Rusnano. The line will be used to produce BIPV modules at a factory in the Republic of Mordovia.

The country’s cumulative installed PV capacity reached 1.7 GW at the end of 2019, as a result of the grid-connected projects tendered by the Russian government between 2014 and 2019. The remaining 500 MW quota of the 2.2 GW tendering scheme should be assigned this year.