Singapore

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.

Singaporean scientists have developed a special device that prevents the formation of dendrites in lithium-ion storage. The additional layer they created works as an interface on behalf of the negative electrode, to exchange lithium-ions with the positive electrode.

Researchers in Singapore have built what they claim is the industry’s most efficient, large-area co-evaporated solar cell. According to their findings, the device has exhibited remarkable thermal stability and could reach commercial maturity within the next few years.

Solar developer NEFIN and electric company Tuas Power have tabled a joint bid to secure the rights to supply 100 MWh of ‘zero-carbon electricity’ from Malaysia to Singapore and said they initially intend to use “brown power” to secure supply during non-solar-generation hours.

If built, the project would be the world’s largest floating PV power plant and would reach the same capacity as the largest ground-mounted facility currently in operation.

Researchers have developed a slot-die coated solar cell with an ‘n-i-p’ layout and a fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate, a tin oxide layer, a perovskite film, and a hole-blocking layer. It has an efficiency of 18.03%, an open-circuit voltage of 1024 mV, and a short-circuit current density of 22.4 mA cm−2.

New research from Singapore has found that gas pipelines for the onshore transport of green hydrogen and the cables for the transport of electricity to produce it at a distant location have similar costs at a 4000 km transmission distance. For longer distances, gas pipelines were found to be cheaper than cables, although the electric lines are said to benefit from scaling up and higher utilization. For both options, however, a currently too high hydrogen LCOE remains the biggest barrier to overcome.

Facebook has revealed plans to buy electricity from a 5 MW floating solar array in the Straits of Johor. The project will sell power through a virtual power purchase agreement.

Scientists in Singapore have conducted a review of all existing methods to produce colorful opaque and semitransparent perovskite solar cells for applications in BIPV and urban environments. They identified two general approaches consisting of coloring the perovskites via external or internal modifications.

Researchers in the Netherlands and Singapore have measured irradiance-weighted average temperatures of floating PV systems in both countries and have compared the results with reference rooftop and ground-mounted PV systems. They have discovered that floating PV systems with open structures, which allow wind to pass beneath the modules, can provide a higher heat loss coefficient.