Spain

Production for the HyDeal project is planned to start in 2025; the total installed capacity is expected to reach 9.5 GW of solar power and 7.4 GW of electrolyzers by 2030. Elsewhere in the world, India and Brazil are preparing rules and laws to promote green hydrogen, while research activities continue to increase hydrogen fuel cell’s efficiency and hydrogen’s use in the aviation sector.

The list of planned gigawatt-scale battery cell manufacturing plants in Europe has grown, with Anglo-Korean battery maker Eurocell announcing plans for a gigafab in Western Europe to start manufacturing at scale within 12 months.

Scientists in Spain have fabricated a silver bismuth sulfide (AgBiS₂) material with an absorption coefficient that is claimed to be 5-10 times greater than any other material currently used for PV technology. A cell built with these nanocrystals showed a power conversion efficiency of 9.17%, an open-circuit voltage of 0.495V, a short-circuit current of 26.75mA/cm², and a fill factor of 63%.

A White Paper written by Áurea Capital Partners analyzes the integration of the European energy market to conclude that Spain is “facing a leadership opportunity and a unique geopolitical advantage that must be taken advantage of and accelerated.” The creation of a National Energy Transition Fund, like that created by Norway for its oil industry, may help the country attract huge investment for clean energy.

Spain’s National Confederation of Installers has released a technical paper about the advantages of coupling rooftop PV with heat pumps. It says that the payback time for a solar-powered heat pump can range between two and five years.

The Spanish energy company is building a huge hydropower complex across three water reservoirs in northern Portugal. The project will rely on 880 MW of pumped-hydro storage and is expected to become fully operational in 2024.

Spanish renewable energy company Acciona is using a robot dog, instead of drones, to monitor a solar park in northern Chile. The device has a built-in thermal vision system that generates thermographic reports on the status of the different PV plant components, as it walks between the panel rows following a programmed route.

The 8 kW photovoltaic shade was deployed on the outdoor rest area of a commercial building located in the northern part of Madrid. It was built with conventional solar modules provided by JA Solar and a structure made with light galvanized steel profiles for plasterboard partitions.

Spire Solar Iberia has developed a state-of-the-art XL solar simulator that is able to measure the maximum power of photovoltaic modules of any size with high precision and to identify those with low performance.

Gelion’s Endure battery will undergo commercial tests at the 1.2 MW Montes del Cierzo testing field that the Spanish renewable energy company operates in Navarra.