South Korea

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.

The latest global PV industry outlook published by trade group SolarPower Europe, has indicated tight supply of the solar panel raw material is expected to persist this year but the trade body said it would be unlikely to drive further price rises.

Selected projects will be awarded a fixed rate under a 20-year contract under the country’s renewable energy certificate (REC) scheme and will sell electricity to local power distributors.

The bifacial panel has a power output of up to 485 W and an efficiency of up to 21%. It relies on a transparent backsheet and is encapsulated with polyolefin elastomer (POE).

Indonesia will catch the eye too over the next nine years, according to analyst WoodMac, as its market grows from 300 MW to 8.5 GW.

Italian energy company Eni is partnering with local companies in Algeria and Egypt to explore the possibility of producing green and blue hydrogen in the North African countries. The United Arab Emirates is also collaborating with Japanese partners to develop the country’s hydrogen sector, while in New York, hydrogen has arrived in Long Island.

Q Cells and Samsung have agreed to combine their hardware and software platforms to develop ‘zero energy homes,’ with on-site energy production and use.

Electricity bill payers in nations as diverse as Germany, Greece, India and China should be aware new solar projects can now generate electricity cheaper for them than legacy coal and gas-fired plants.

Scientists in South Korea tested a new cathode material as part of a calcium-ion battery (CIB), achieving some impressive results. The material retained more than 90% of it initial capacity after 500 cycles, alongside some of the best performance results seen so far for this technology. The scientists say that this discovery opens up “an unexplored pathway toward the realization of stable and high-power cathodes in CIBs.”

According to new figures by the Korean Energy Agency, South Korea seems on track to have another successful year in terms of newly deployed PV. According to local experts, however, this will not be enough to achieve the Korean government’s goal of 20% renewable generation by 2030.